Miracle or Disaster?
by LivinJgrl123
Summary: Jason Todd was dead. Or that's what Audri Baron has been told for a year, after the discovery of the Red Hood's identity. She'd never hoped or dreamed that he would come back, but what happens when her dead best friend isn't as dead as she'd originally thought? *COMPLETE* *Sequel is up*
1. (Part I) Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMRE DISCLAIMER you know the drill. I dont own anything!**

**WARNING: Violence!**

**A/N: hope you all like it! The intro is super short but later on chapters should get longer! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Part One**

* * *

It had been six years since his death. Six. And it had been only one since Bruce had found out who he was. That didn't bother him so much; he had _wanted_ him to find out who he was. It had bothered him that the Joker had survived along with Bruce and himself, though, but now something seemed wrong to him, and he wanted to make it right. Although it wouldn't seem right to Bruce, or anyone who'd known Jason before being blown to smithereens after being beaten half to death.

What bothered him was that Bruce had never told a certain someone that he was alive and well.

He'd wanted her to know. If he had survived that one night, his plan would have directed him to an apartment in the middle of Gotham where an old friend still lived. But things hadn't gone according to plan. And she _still_ didn't know. She had every right to know, he'd decided, as he sat on a ledge of a skyscraper, needing time to himself, away from the people he controlled, scared, and bothered. They had been best friends since before he'd become the second Robin. And even after finding out who he'd turned into, she'd still remained by his side. She was who he counted on most, besides Bruce of course. He didn't trust Dick at all, and had no intention of doing so.

Bruce probably had wanted to shield her from the life he was leading now. He most likely thought that she didn't need to know that he was alive and the resurrection had turned him into a murderer. He could understand it, but he didn't have to like it. He knew very well what her reactions she could be. There were two that he thought she would have. The first one would her getting angry and afraid. First, she would through things and scream and cry and then try to strangle whoever was standing closest to her. _She's always had anger issues,_ he thought to himself as he watched the cars stop and go, stop and go, far below him. Then she would be scared of him. A murderer, her Jason? He had never killed anyone before his death. It would shock her to know what he was now. Then she would ask Bruce to get him off the streets, and she would willingly never see him again. Her second reaction would to be happy. Happy about his resurrection. Happy about him being alive. Not caring about who he was, but that he was still Jason, even if death had changed him.

He scoffed. He realized that she could have changed over the years, that she might not care about anything at all. So he decided not to care about her reaction. It was easy. All he wanted was her to know that he walking the earth and who he was and who he wasn't and what he'd done since his days as Robin had ended with a beating and an explosion.

He stood up, stretching. She was going to find out, one way or another, and there was nothing Bruce could do to stop it.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I LIKE SHORT CHAPTERS. Yay. enjoy!**

Audri stared at the suit encased in glass with a sad smile on her lips. It had been six years. _That seems like a long time,_ she thought. _He would have been twenty three this year._ She shook her head slightly, slouching lower in Bruce's chair. The Batcave's swivel chair was very comfy, and she intended to sit in because she knew it would annoy Bruce that she was sitting in _his_ chair. It was like driving the Batmobilel; the guy didn't like other people messing with his stuff.

The silence rang in her ears as she let her mind wander. Except it wandered into a blank spot. Nothing came to mind. There were no thoughts drifting through her head. She frowned at this. Her head was never empty. Something was always moving around in her head, and it usually had something to do with Jason.

She faced the giant computer screen, frowning, and pushed one button. A picture of the Red Hood popped up, and she gasped. He had his date of birth, his age, his height, his crimes, and other things listed. Why was the Caped Crusader concerned about this guy? Wasn't he just some trigger happy drug lord or something like that? She noticed a file labeled "OTHER", and, curious, clicked on it without hesitation.

It denied her. She angrily clicked on it over and over, but the same message popped up, beeping at her, "YOU ARE DENIED ACCESS FROM THIS FILE". She scowled. What so important that it had to be kept secret an already secretive computer that belonged to a very eccentric billionaire?

"You want help getting to that?" she looked over her shoulder, startled, to see Dick walking in, taking his mask off and throwing it on the desk as he came up beside her.

"Who is this guy?"

"Someone Bruce doesn't want you interacting with." Audri scowled. What a typical, crappy answer. He was following orders, most likely. Bruce had always kept things from her, and so had Dick. But for some reason, this was more frustrating than usual.

"Yeah, I got that from his profile."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Have you met him before?" the edge to his tone told her that if she had, she was in big trouble. She hadn't, luckiy.

"No, what of it?" she snapped, searching all the other files that were full of useless crap that she didn't care about that had lots of numbers and scrambled codes that she'd never been taught how to read.

"He's dangerous."

"No, duh," she grumbled, leaning back in the chair. It was official: Bruce was hiding something, and it was something that only he thought that he needed to know about. She wondered if Dick knew about whatever was in that file. He saw the question in her eyes and frowned.

"Don't get into it," he said.

"Why not? Does it have something to do with me?"

"No." This felt like a lie. _I wonder why._

She snorted. "I'll just ask Alfred then. ALFRED!"

Dick spun around, but was too late when the butler came over to the girl. "Yes, Miss Baron?"

"What's this Red Hood chap got to do with me?" she asked, sending an accusing look in Dick's direction. "I know he's lying and I know it's something that involves me! Why else would he not tell me what's going on?"

"I think you're overreacting," the man said honestly, "but she does have a right to know, Master Richard." Dick shook his head.

"Bruce will have my head on a silver platter if I do."

"But so will she if you do not."

"I'll take my chances."

Sensing that she'd lost this battle, Audri sighed, stood, and stalked off towards the stairs. She was going to find out whatever Bruce was hiding from her. _Even if it kills me,_ she thought.

**A/N: I know only a few people have viewed this but that is okay. For those of you who have thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Is this another short one? yes. Are you surprised? shouldn't be. Enjoy!**

When Bruce had been informed of Audri Baron's snooping around on his computer, he wasn't happy, not in the slightest.

"Do you think she knows anything?" Dick asked.

"It's a possibility. You know she has been known to lie in the past." Bruce took off his mask, sighing heavily. He sat down, glaring at the computer screen that had countless "DENIED ACCESS" messages on it.

"How do we know she _is_ lying?" Dick looked at the screen, shaking his head. The twenty two year old was too nosy for her own good, and she knew it, but didn't care.

"We could always ask him," Alfred offered from the back of the room.

"What makes you think that he'll even want to listen?" he scoffed. "We haven't heard anything about him for months now."

"She's his best friend. If it involves her he'll show concern."

"How do you know if he still cares?"

"We don't. But I have to make sure she doesn't know anything."

Dick was uncertain about this. He really didn't think Jason would show if Bruce wanted to talk to him. He also didn't think Audri knew anything because she still looked depressed half the time when she wasn't bothering to hide how sad she was. They'd known each other since before Jason had become Robin, and even after discovering that he was the Batman's sidekick. If she knew he was alive, it would be obvious to everyone that something had happened. She would have changed. She would seem...happier. Maybe.

"Bruce—"

"Make arrangements with him. If he doesn't agree at first, tell him it has something to do with Audri, but nothing more than that. If she doesn't know already, then she will find out soon. It's just how things work with that girl."

Dick saw no room for argument. So it was decided. He just hoped Jason would at least listen to the "Audri" part of the request to speak with him in a civil manner.

* * *

Jason had said yes, surprisingly. He hadn't even asked what this was about. But that meant he'd be overly cautious. The three of them had agreed to meet on the pier Jason had been on while shooting the three men who'd stolen the truck carrying Amazo.

Jason was the last one there. He stood at a distance, his helmet on. "So?" he barked. He looked as if he had somewhere more important to be. Bruce remembered him getting that look whenever they had gone on missions and he was just itching to go see that girl who always stayed up all night waiting for him to come home so they could hang out before he passed out from exhaustion in the Batcave.

"Jason," Dick began, but the younger man seemed on edge.

"What's this about Audri?"

"Does she know?" Bruce asked, getting straight to the point.

"Know what?" the Red Hood asked innocently.

"You know what we mean," Dick said.

"No, I haven't told her a thing, if that's what you mean," he paused thoughtfully before saying, "I'm betting you caught her snooping. Am I right, Bruce?"

"Yes," he answered, sounding slightly irritated. "And we need you to stay away from her."

"Why?" he already knew the answer to this. But he wanted to hear it anyways.

"So she can be protected." Bingo. Jason glared from behind his helmet. What a predictable answer.

"You should tell her then, if she wants to know so badly," he said, turning to leave. He'd had enough. It was obvious he wasn't going to tell her anything.

"Jason—"

"Or I will."

With that, he walked away from the two heroes, who glanced at each other. This was not good. They, too, took their leave. Both of them were thinking the same thing: Audri would find out eventually, and when she did, they didn't know what to expect from her. An unpredictable Audri sounded more difficult than facing a very pissed off and very determined Jason.

**A/N: it's 12am. Sigh. School starts today. FIRST DAY BACK.I'll try and come back and get more done! (of course I'll come back lol) Thank ya for reading! Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks again for reading! Thank you to'Guest' and 'Holly' who reviewed! It means a lot! glad you like it :)**

Audri didn't go straight home, as she'd planned to. Instead, she walked past her apartment building, needing time to think. Her home was always too quiet, even with music shaking the floor.

It was a cold night in Gotham. It was early November, and the cold that seeped in at night seemed to embed itself inside all the warm places in her apartment was making goose bumps crawl up and down her arms. She shivered, shaking her head. _Jason loved the cold weather. He always said he did best on cold nights._ She scowled, rubbing her arms. She didn't like hot weather, but she certainly didn't love the lack of feeling in her toes and the numbness in her fingertips. She was wearing skinny jeans, combat boots, an old, tight fitting t-shirt she'd gotten a few years back that had paint splattered all over it from the time she and her best friend had spent six hours splashing paint on the walls of an unused room in Wayne Manor, and a hoodless black jacket with he collar turned up to shield her neck from the cold.

She had wanted to think, but found her head empty again. _How about I don't think?_ Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. She rolled her eyes at herself as she suddenly turned into an alley, feeling a little hungry. There was a bakery around here, she remembered, and wanted to eat something unhealthy and yummy. To take her mind off of the obvious secret being kept from her and everything else that was and wasn't going on her life.

She exited the alley and stepped out onto the sidewalk and saw that the bakery was closed. _Huh?_ It was _never_ closed! She quickly crossed the strangely deserted street and pressed her face to the glass, squinting. All the lights were off. She frowned. She looked at the "FOR SALE" sign on the window and cursed herself for not noticing it before. But when was the last time she'd been here? _A year and a half, _she thought. She stamped her foot. When had _this_ happened?

She heard some men talking loudly and turned around to see a few big, burly men staring at her, apparently stopping whatever loud conversation they were having. She gulped. _Aw, craaaaaaap._ She knew right away that this wasn't going to end well for her.

"You ain't s'posed t'be here, sweetie," the shortest one called out to her. In the darkness, she couldn't see their faces. _Not good, not good, not good!_

"And I s'pose yer gonna make me leave, _right_?" she mocked his accent. She smirked at them. The street lamp behind them made them seem more deadly, but she was not about to show them just how freaked out she really was.

"Watch your mouth," the second tallest one snarled. "Now go back the way ya' came and don't come back, alright?"

"Why should I?" _You are such_ _a freaking idiot, Audri!_

"'Cause we told you to," the tallest one said dangerously. "Don't play games. Scram before you get hurt."

She laughed, despite the fear that gurgled in her throat. "It's not like _you_ own the freaking city! You can't tell me where to go; I'll go where I please, when I please, and I won't let some thug like you tell me what to do."

The shortest one walked across the street quickly and before she could process the thought _get the heck out of there_ she felt his fist slam into her gut. She doubled over, gasping. That guy was _strong._ She scowled and stood up straight as his buddies joined them.

"We told ya', sweetie, get outta' here 'fore ya' get yerself hurt," he said menacingly. She directed her scowl at the one who'd punched her. _That's going to leave a nasty bruise._

"I'm already _hurt_, you idiot."

He pulled back his fist for another punch, but the second tallest one caught his friend. "What if she's a _snitch? Did ya' think 'bout that?" _the shorter one snarled, but pulled his hand away. He glowered down at the woman who was leaning against the front window of the closed bakery, her hand on her stomach._ Ouch._

"So do we kill her?"

"Nah," the tallest one said. He grabbed Audri by her shoulder length light brown hair and yanked her forward. "We'll take her to the boss. He'll want to know 'bout her."

"And _who_, might I ask, is your boss?" she hissed when he yanked again on her scalp.

"You'll find out soon enough," the second tallest said. With that, he slammed her head against the wall, and darkness blocked out the blossoming pain that erupted from the back of her skull.

**A/N: THANK YA VARY MUCH FOR READIN'! Hope ya liked it!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: i think im updating my stuff too fast lol. enjoy! let me know if things are going to fast (plot wise)? i think they are but thats just me. As always, hope you like! thank you for viewiiiiiiiing!**

"Boss?"

Jason looked over his shoulder at one of his henchmen, the shortest and strongest of them all. He looked kind of nervous. They all did when they were around their boss. He was unpredictable, and had a temper. Some said he was more dangerous than Black Mask. At times, he could be.

"What is it?" he asked. They were on the roof an abandoned warehouse, and Jason had sat and stared at nothing.

"We found somebody ya might wanna talk to."

"Who is he?"

"It ain't a he, boss, it a she. We found 'er outside the ol' bakery in the back alleys. We gave 'er a fair warnin' but she wouldn't go 'way. So we thought we'd bring 'er back to ye. We think she's a snitch."

Jason nodded. Behind his helmet, he frowned. _Who could it be?_

"A snitch, eh?" the man nodded. "Why didn't you just kill her?"

"She was mouthin' off. She didn't seem ta' understan' that you own this side o' town."

Jason sighed. He knew that they had done good sparing her for the time being. Whoever she was, she was most likely what this man said she was. "I'll deal with her."

"She's on the bottom floor, in the room wit' a metal door. We handcuffed 'er to a chair so she wouldn't get out when she woke."

He nodded at the shorter man and walked past him, down the stairs, and through another hallways before going down another set of stairs. Whenever he passed his men they would grow silent until he'd moved on out of sight. He moved down to the end of the hallway and put his hand on the cold, metal handle, but stopped himself from opening it the he heard the girl humming from the inside.

_Humming?_

He rolled his eyes. Was she crazy, too? Or was it that just that: insanity caught in the wrong place at the wrong time?

He opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind him. The person sitting upright in the metal chair had stopped humming. He reached up to click on the only light that illuminated the tiny room. He was shocked to see who sat in front of him, glaring.

_Audri_. Not crazy.

"Heya," she said easily as if she'd met him a thousand times before. "So you're the boss, eh? Can I just say you're not what I expected? 'Cause I didn't know Black Mask was giving away territories. Put me on his list?"

He didn't reply. Was she really a snitch? Had Bruce sent her? He was obviously still dead to her, because of the way she was speaking to him. He was going to use this against Bruce, he decided.

"Soooo," she said, looking around. He knew her well enough to see the easily disguised fear hiding in her eyes. After all, they had been best friends for so long. "When do I get out of here?"

"Not for a while," he said coldly. She looked at him suspiciously.

"Oh, well then," she said, "can you uncuff me, then?"

He knew without looking that Audri was already trying to slip her restraints. So he went around her, smirked, and tightened them. Seeing her tense, he said, "don't try anything funny." He moved back so he was in front of her again.

"Whoah," she breathed. "What are you, a fortune-teller or something?"

"Not even close."

"Can I go home?"

"And do what?"

"Call my mom and tell her I was kidnapped by the Red Hood."

He shook his head. "Liar." Her mother lived outside of Gotham, in a giant mansion, retired. He knew she wanted nothing to do with her daughter because she'd run away twice and hadn't bothered to come back.

She frowned. He knew that she was a good liar, but lying to him was a very difficult thing to do. _If only she knew. Then she'd understand why I seem like such a genius._

"Okay..." she sighed, flinging her bangs out of her eyes. She winced when she readjusted herself. "Do you own that street or something?"

"In a way of speaking, yes," he said, studying her closely. She had changed a lot over six years. Her freckles had vanished. Her skin had turned from a healthy color to a sickly shade of gray, almost translucent. _I wonder why that is._ It was obvious she had lost the muscle she'd built up from all her years of working with him while training. _Maybe she gave up after I died._ The dark circles under her eyes told him that she was exhausted but refused to sleep. _Nightmares?_

"You know, I'm not a snitch. But to you I _could_ be one. So does that make me a snitch?" she glared.

"You could be lying." This he wasn't sure about.

"Could be," she agreed. "But I know we won't agree on that any time soon."

"And why wouldn't we?"

"Because you're you, you idiot! How come I have to answer all the stupid questions around here?"

He shook his head again. Her attitude still hadn't changed, even though she was terrified. She wouldn't admit that, though. "Are you working for the Batman?" he asked, disliking the fact that he couldn't notify her that he knew who the Batman was.

She blinked in surprise. "You're kidding." when she got no reply, she rolled her eyes. "You're more of an idiot than I thought. Well, since you don't know me, I can see why you ask." So she wasn't a snitch. But he wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily.

"I don't like liars."

"Sucks for you, then."

He almost laughed. "You're a good one, though." Her smirk vanished when he added, "but sadly for you, I can see when you're lying."

She scowled. "Fine," she admitted after a moment, "you can see I'm lying! But does that make me a snitch?"

"Maybe," he said. "Maybe you're spying for him but you just don't know it yet." Her eyes went wide. Then he knew. It had been such a Batman thing to do: set her up without telling anybody and she unexpectedly had information to bring back to him. Of _course._

"What?" he asked innocently. "I'd thought you know that about him after all this time."

"Just who do you think you are?" she said, suddenly angry. He almost shook his head. This was just how he'd pictured her acting if he'd ever bothered to go and find her. But he hadn't planned on seeing her face to face this soon.

"I am who I am," he said. "It's not who I think I am, because I know. Do you know who _you_ are?"

She blinked once, confusion passing over her face for just a moment. "Yeah," she said, "of course I do!"

"Please tell me your name, then."

Her eyebrows shot up. "So you can come to my house and shoot me? No way!"

"You don't live in a house, you've lived in the same apartment since you were eighteen." She opened her mouth, but he wouldn't let her speak. "You also go to a warehouse not far from here that is condemned when you don't feel like hanging around anyone." She snapped her mouth shut and scowled.

"How do you know that?"

"Because this isn't the first time we've met." This seemed to make her brain snap into motion. He could practically see the gears turning frantically inside her head, trying to place his voice, his height...the look in her eyes told him that she was scared for her life. But she was hiding it very, very well. _But not well enough for me not to see it._

"Wait...you _know_ me?"

"Yes."

She thought really hard for a moment, her face scrunching up into what resembled a scowl. "How long have we known each other?" her voice was calm, quiet, and angry. _I taught her how to put a mask on her fear. I can take that mask away from her._

"Long enough to know when you got that shirt and why it's paint splattered. And why your combat boots don't have laces." Again, her eyes went wide. "So you don't know?"

"Know what?"

He chuckled darkly, shaking his head again. "Just ask Bruce."

* * *

Audri's eyes went wide. She didn't bother to hide the fear that had been dying to show its ugly face since she woke up. Humming had calmed her. This man terrified her. Now she knew she was in trouble. _How can he know who Bruce is? What else does he know? Does he know who Dick is, who Jason was?_ More and more questions came into her head, making her nauseous for just a second. She didn't like him, not one bit. He couldn't know all this...could he? It was impossible! It couldn't be true...but it was. The truth was right in front of her, but she didn't want to accept it. It just didn't seem real.

The Red Hood chuckled again.

"Tell me all the things you just said you know about me," Audri blurted, hating how she cowardly she felt right then. She needed to know if he was bluffing or not. She wanted to believe that he was just lying about everything..._but lying to myself won't help me at all._

She could almost feel his smirk. "You spent six hours painting that room on the first floor, just dancing around. You hate laces because when you were fourteen, you were running away from Robin after he found you in a place _you really shouldn't have been in_ and you tripped and fell and vowed never to wear laced shoes again. You claimed that you refused to get caught again. I know a lot more, but telling you all those things would give me away."

"Don't you talk about _him_," she hissed, momentarily forgetting how much he really knew about her. "You have no right!"

"And why don't I?"

"No one does!" she spat. "No one has the right to talk about my—"

"_Your_ Jason?" he finished for her. With these words, Audri's voice somehow escaped her. She could only gape at him, fear clawing at her, scarring her flesh with invisible violence. She blinked. "Well? Am I right? And was he yours?" He had a cruel edge to his voice. No, not cruel... _pained?_

She couldn't speak. _Oh. My. Freaking. God. How does he know about Jason? How can he know any of this?! I knew Bruce was hiding something but...this guy? He's something else entirely._

"I'm waiting," he said impatiently.

Silence.

"Tell me your name," he said, snapping a little.

"Cinderella." she smirked inwardly. She hadn't even meant to say that. But it worked for her.

"Try again."

She looked up, something she did when she acted like she was thinking of something clever but not really. "How about Briar Rose?"

"You really want to push your luck?" she frowned. _No, but I will anyway._

"Okay...look, I don't feel like getting killed in my sleep anytime soon."

"I wouldn't kill you in your sleep," he said. There was a note of honestly in his voice that listed only a moment, but it was certainly there. "If I kill you, you would know when it was coming, and you'd get the chance to defend yourself."

"Ooooh, do I get special treatment?"

"Since you're special, yes." _How do I respond to this?_ He chuckled again. "If it were anyone else," he said, lowering his voice, leaning closer to her, "they'd be dead before they knew I was within six miles of them."

This sent chills down her spine. Gulp. _Okay. New thought: don't mess with this guy._

"So you are going to kill me?"

He let out a laugh. It sounded easy, as if he'd heard this many times before. "Of course not," he said. "Me? Kill you? I'd save you from death itself before I tried to kill you."

"But you would if you wanted to."

"Yes," he sounded a little..._lighter_. He stepped away from her and leaned up against the wall, relaxing. "Now, do you want to go back to your apartment?"

"Not really, since you know where I live."

"I've always known."

Huh? "You have?"

"Yes," he said.

"I still want to go home." _Fine, I'll cooperate. But I'm not promising anything! I still don't trust you AT ALL._

"Then tell me your name."

"Don't you already know it?" He sighed in reply, so she mumbled, "Audri."

For some reason, she could feel him smiling. _Isn't that creepy? How do I knew that he's even smiling? He could be seriously pissed underneath that helmet of his! Something must be wrong with me...maybe it's because my head was smashed against a brick wall and then I was dragged to a warehouse and handcuffed to a freaking chair._

Yeah, that explained a lot.

"You did know it!" she exclaimed suddenly.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't," he said.

Audri rolled her eyes. "So when can I get out of here?" As much as she wanted to, though, she wanted to find out everything there was to know about this Red Hood, the one who'd taken up the Joker's old name. She felt rage and depression swell within her, dulling her world for only a moment at the memory of his beaten and bloody body...

"You okay?" she found herself nodding to this. Since when did he care? Did he at all?

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," the young woman said a bit too quickly. She wanted to bite her tongue off. Why couldn't she just shut up?

_Oh, yeah, that's right: I'm _ME_. Fun._

"Like I said, you're a good liar," he told her. "But there's no way you're the best."

She smiled, despite the predicament she'd gotten herself into. Jason had been one of the best liars on the planet, in her opinion. There were all the heroes wandering around, but then there was the hero she knew. Her Jason. The one who'd taught her to not wear laces when running from him while thinking dark thoughts. _Should've planned ahead for that one,_ she thought sadly.

"You have that look," the Red Hood said suddenly, interrupting the sad memories that were drifting silently through her mind.

"What look?" she said, raising an eyebrow. Just how well did he know her? Well enough to know she was lying...but well enough to know what the look on her face was for? Was she that easy to read, _or have I really met him before?_

"That look," he said simply. He apparently ended that part of the conversation. "Now, do you want to go home?"

"Yeah, actually. I'm just dying to get home and stay awake all night." He was quiet for a moment, which made her ask herself _who in the heck is this guy and what the heck is he thinking?!_

"Tell Bruce I said hello."

"Okay." That sounded easy enough. But there was going to be a seriously _pissed._ off. Batman around Gotham when she told him.

"And Dicky, too." She snickered. She had always called Dick Dicky when she had been little, when she had first met him. Before she'd come to know him as someone who was like a brother. Sort of.

"Ask him about me." Her smile vanished. That was going to be a touchy subject. "Don't take no as an answer. Hack into his computer if you have to. Or at least try to get Alfred to tell you when Bruce and Dick are out and about. Can you do that?"

"Think so, Mr. I-Know-Freaking-Everything."

He shook his head again. She wanted to see his face and see what was written on it. _Or do I?_

"But what if I don't?" she asked.

He thought a moment. "If you don't? I'll do it myself, but it'll make your life miserable."_ How the heck can I be anymore miserable than I am now?_

"Do I even have a choice?"

"Yes and no."

"I think you're leaning towards no." She rolled her eyes. She didn't want to know how much more miserable she could get. But if this was her way out, she was going to take it. _Besides, if I piss this guy off, he'll just kill me. When I'm ready to fight back though. But he'll win._ Where did that come from? _Audri Baron, how in the bloody heck do you know if he's going to win? You've only been hearing about him for a year! You've never met him until now!_

_...or have I?_

"Fine. What's in it for me?"

"You get to stay alive," he said.

Sounded like a fair deal to Audri.

"Okay."

He moved to uncuff her, but she asked quickly, "why don't I wear laces?"

"So you can avoid being caught."

Yeah, he certainly knew her.

As soon as he uncuffed her though, he put a black cloth over her head, and she panicked for a moment. "Hey, man, what the heck?!"

"So you don't tattle to Bruce where I'm at."

Oh, goody. This was going to be fun.

Audri sighed as she felt him grab her left arm and hold her upright. He was strong, stronger than that guy who had knocked her out earlier.

This wasn't going to end well, that much she knew.

**A/N: A bit long, dontcha think? :D****  
****I switched POVS. I dont know if I should do that. do you? oh well!****  
****To those who have viewed thank you so much! it means a lot! :D and to you who've reviewed :) makes my day every time!****  
****btw IM SO SORRY i havent worked on any of my Bourne stuff in like a few days. school and all. but now the weekend is here! but i'll be sleeping. ANYWAYS: I'll update everything As Soon As I can. hope you liked it!**


	6. Chapter 6

A/N:** Hi again! ****WARNING: dark thoughts. Maybe (hey, what can i say? not all my stories can be positive! lol) So SUE ME. dont hate me! thanks for reading! ****Again, I apologize for not updating my Marta Had A Secret gig. I promise i will! but right now im on a role... i think. i dont know. all i know is that JASON TODD IS EPIC. there. :D enjoy!**

Jason walked Audri home the long way so she wouldn't remember where to go. She had a bad sense of direction in the first place when she was blindfolded but it didn't hurt to make sure. Before taking away the black hood, he'd made her promise that if he saw her again that the dark cirlces under her eyes wouldn't be there. She'd scoffed, but had promised to "try" to get some sleep.

When in bed, ready to fall asleep, Audri's mind wandered back to the last hour. _What a_ _night_, she thought, sitting up. She scowled. There was no way she was going to go to sleep, to fall into that nightmarish abyss people needed to feel refreshed and energized. She couldn't do it—couldn't face the memories that followed her there, couldn't face the things she'd gone through and the people who haunted her and the thoughts that lurked in the back of her mind every day, waiting for the chance to slip into the spotlight of her attention. Thoughts that she'd had since before Jason had known her, thoughts that she'd kept from him and everyone else including her mother for years until it was almost too late for her.

She flung the covers off her body, storming over to her dresser and pulling on a new pair of jeans, a black t-shirt, and an old hoodie she'd gotten a year ago. It was dark gray and had a music note on the front. She quickly pulled her hair into a ponytail and ran out the door of her small apartment, not caring to lock the door behind her. She ran down the stairs and rushed out of the building, nearly colliding with Dick Grayson as she tried to run across the street. He caught her arm right as she caught her balance before she could run away, to the warehouse she'd always called a second home. She'd never had a first home, though.

"Whoa, whoa, Audri, what's wrong!"

"Get off me, Dick!" she shrieked, struggling to get away from him.

"Audri!" he shook her hard, once, and she stopped, motionless for only a second.

"LET. ME. GO!" she shouted, stamping her feet. She wasn't in the mood for anyone at all, not the Red Hood, not for Jason, not for Bruce, not for anyone.

"My God, what happened to you?" he asked, noting the dried blood in her hair. Whoops. She'd forgotten to take a shower when she'd arrived at her doorstep. She winced at the memory of her head being slammed into a brick wall. It was something she really didn't want to experience again.

"I fell down, you idiot! Now let go of me!" How come no one could hear her shouts? It was as if the all the people of Gotham slept like the dead. Either that or they just didn't care at all.

"Lying—"

"Don't you DARE call me a bad liar! I've already heard it tonight plenty of times!"

"You _what_?"

_Oh, crap._

"I...just let go of me, okay?" he didn't, knowing she'd run.

"Audri, what happened?" she turned as best she could to find Bruce behind her, looking very stern. She hadn't realized that they weren't in costume. _Slow night?_ she wondered.

"None of your damn buisess," she muttered as Dick finally let go of her. "Oh, he told me tell you, Dicky, hello. You, too, Bruce." She regretted saying that. But he'd told her to say that. And who would honestly want to get on the Red Hood's bad side? If he was just as bad as he was leading her to believe, then she really needed to just do what he told her to.

"_What_ did you call me?" Dick asked, incredulous.

"Dicky," Audri repeated.

"You stopped calling me that ages ago." His eyes narrowed. "_Who were you with and when?_"

Audri gulped, saying nothing.

"If you don't tell us, your life could end," Bruce warned. At this, she had to roll her eyes.

"No way," she said. On the way home, he'd promised her that if he knew her, she'd understand why he would never kill her. Although if he wanted to he could with ease, but he'd assured her that would never happen. Somehow, she'd believed him. She didn't know why. He could have lied for all she knew.

"Yes," Bruce said. "You are in danger. Now who did you talk to, and how did that injury on your head come to be?"

"None. of. your. damn. buisness," she hissed, crossing her arms tightly over her chest, wanting very badly to be on her own. She felt too weird to stay in one place and talk to these two, especially after what she'd been ask to do.

"It is if we make it our buisness," Bruce said. He was just as unhappy as she was.

She held up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, fine, I'll tell you what happened! I was walking around when I ran into these three guys. The short one rammed my head into a brick wall after pulling my hair and I woke up in a room handcuffed to chair. You happy?"

"Who kidnapped you?"

"Those three men," she repeated. She felt as if she couldn't tell Bruce or Dick or anyone about the Red Hood. _Why the heck do I even bother protecting the guy?! They obviously know who it was...am I scared?_ Sher certainly felt scared.

"And why would they do that?"

"I was by that old bakery me, you, and Jason use to go to when we were little, but it was closed, and they kept trying to get me scram." They knew the rest. Audri didn't like following orders, especially from thugs like them.

Dick pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head slightly. "I can _not _believe we let this happen."

"Let what happen?" Audri asked innocently.

"That territory was originally Black Mask's."

"Uhhh..." _Am I supposed to give a damn?_

"And the Red Hood took it from him." She couldn't fake surprise. She just shrugged. Bruce gave her this look which made her scowl back at him. He looked her in the eye, a frown growing on his lips. "You got kidnapped by the Red Hood."

Bruce was _not_ happy when she didn't even try to deny this.

"What? He didn't hurt me or anything!"

Dick glared. "He could have killed you!"

"He promised he wouldn't," she protested, hating how she was being treated like she couldn't look out for herself. What was the bid deal, anyway? Why were they so concerned with this guy?

"You don't really believe that a promise saves your life, do you?" Bruce looked like he wanted to go off and beat the guy to death...or at least close to death.

"He said that if he really wanted to kill me he would give me a chance to kill him," Audri said, growing mysteriously sad at his words. Why was she feeling this was. "He...he said he'd rather save me from death itself."

This didn't help the situation. To Audri, it meant that she was safe for the time being, and that the Red Hood was connected to her in a way she hadn't discovered yet. To Dick, his little brother was out of control and needed to stay away from her, because if she knew, she would surely fall to pieces. To Bruce, this whole thing had been expected, but he hadn't wanted to face it anytime soon after discovering who the Red Hood was. It would hurt the already damaged girl, and a year seemed too soon for her to know. If it had gone his way, though, she would have never been involved in Jason's second life at all. But things never went anyone's way.

"Of course he would," Bruce muttered, "he could do it, too."

Audri squinted at him. "What are you talking about, Bruce?"

Bruce shook his head. "You don't need to know."

"The _heck_ I don't!" Audri looked to Dick. "Richard, what are you talking about?"

"He could save you from death, even if it took you."

_What?_

"Audri...Bruce, she needs to know."

"She can't."

"What can't I know?" What was going on? What did she need to know?

"It isn't the right time."

"It'll never be right time!"

"Then I'll tell her." They three whirled around to face the alley that stood between her apartment building and the hair salon next to it. She knew from his voice that it was the Red Hood, but he wasn't visible. Why was he hiding?"

"Dont," Dick began, but the other man cut him off.

"You've been confusing her for the past ten minutes. And you've been hinting at it for a while, so I think I'll tell her if you want. Audri?"

"Uhhh...yeah?" she bit her lip, wondering exactly what was going to happen next.

"I'm going to tell you why you were running that night when you tripped because of your laces." Her heart stopped for only a moment. Only five people, herself included, knew what had happened that night, when she hadn't been old enough to even drive. There was Alfred, Dick, Bruce...and Jason. How could he know? _If he's lying I swear..._

"Okay," she said uneasily. Why were Bruce and Dick just standing there, gritting their teeth, after what they'd just said?

"You'd just run away from home for the first time." His voice was soft and saddened, and he had that pained edge to his tone. It made Audri's heart twitch inside her chest.

Okay, he was good on that part.

"You were in the warehouse, crouched behind all those crates, the one full of the stuff that smelled like popcorn."

_What the heck?!_

"You had a knife with you."

Uh-oh.

"You have thirteen scars on your left underarm. You didn't plan to survive that night. I found you."

_No... it can't be! He's lying! He's...Jason must have told someone! No, no..._

"You were sobbing. You didn't have anything else to do or anywhere to go. You had no friends, no other family besides your rich mother and her boyfriend, who you've hated to this very day. You kept having nightmares, and they were making your sanity crumble. The nightmares were about you falling into a black abyss. You woke up screaming almost every night. Every night, you'd tell me you were falling, and you could see the faces of the staff at your old school who mistreated you and your classmates. But your were always falling." His voice cracked on the last word, but he wasn't done.

A sob was threatening to escape Audri's lips. She could barely keep herself together. What she was hearing...only one person could know all this...

"You've never stopped having that dream. In that dream, you could feel all the healed cuts and bruises that were given to you at that school. And you couldn't take  
it anymore. We met when I was still in Crime Alley. You were missing for five years totaled up, back when you were nine or eight; you never told me which. I remember you punching me and giving me a blood nose when I tried to help you up...your ankle was twisted..."

He shook his head, growing silent for a moment. Audri could feel his eyes wandering over her, as if memorizing every inch of her.

_This can't be happening._

_I buried him._

"Anyways, I found you. You screamed at me, called me a nosy kid, tried to run away. But the laces to your combat boots were undone. I was Robin then... Bruce wasn't with me. I tackled you, and threatened to tie you up unless you told me who you were. You told me everything about you then, and no one else knows the things I know. I know how your life was like back at your house. I know how your life was at your school. I know why falling scares you so much. And you know who I am."

Audri was speechless. _No._

"I gave you a present when you first came to Wayne Manor," he said, softening his voice. "It was a white teddy bear with an orange ribbon around her neck. You named her Snow White."

Audri's hands were shaking. Tears were welling up inside her heart. This couldn't be possible.

"And I know you know who I am."

With that said, he stepped out of the alley, and Audri's brain stopped functioning.

Jason Todd was standing no more than ten feet from her, still in the outfit he'd worn when he'd kidnapped her, just without his helmet. His dark hair hung in his green eyes..._those damned green eyes that were always smirking at me._

"J-Jason?" Audri managed.

He smiled sadly at her and nodded. It was as if they were the only people left on the planet.

"I buried you," she said simply. "I..."

"I saw you at my funeral," he said. "What did I tell you about sleeping outside?"

She caved, then. She turned and fled, and no one stopped her this time. This was all too much for her. Jason was alive. But she had put him in the ground. Jason was living. But she had slept by his tombstone. Anger, depression, relief, love, joy, and doubt all raged through the poor young woman's body as she ran. Her knees were shaking so badly that she kept stumbling every minute or so. She didn't pause to notice the stares or glances she got as she ran and ran and ran. She couldn't bear to think now. She had to be alone.

So she found her warehouse, went behind the crates that still smelled like popcorn, curled up into a ball, and cried herself into a blissfully dreamless sleep given to her by exhaustion.

The only thing that she could see in her dark sleep was Jason.

And that was alright with her right then, despite what she was feeling and thinking and not feeling and thinking.

_My Jason..._


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: HAHA! she knows! And now you know a little more about the 22 year old Audri Baron! I don't know if I should dig into her past more...oh well! I'll just figure this out as it comes to me! **

**review and enjoy! :)**

Jason, Bruce, and Dick all stood together in silence for a few moments as they watched the girl stumble away from them as fast as she could, tears streaming down her face, strangled sobs escaping her lips. None of them moved for a few minutes.

Jason was the first to do anything. He merely shook his head, smiling after his shocked best friend. He was going to have to leave her be. He decided that she would come and find him when she felt she had to, to make sure she was ready. So this was her reaction. At least she wasn't trying to strangle him or telling him he ought to have stayed dead. He'd seen the relief in her eyes as she'd stumbled away. It made him feel a little better about having her know. _So I do care about her reaction._

"Jason," Dick said slowly, "we don't want you coming after her, and we don't want her to find you."

"Why not?" Jason didn't really care about what _they_ wanted. Audri just had to be okay. That's all he cared about for the moment.

"She's not going to want to see you," Dick said.

"Same about you," he retorted. "She's off to the warehouse, and she isn't going to want to see anyone. She'll have a thing or two to say, Bruce, when she brings up the fact that you've known about this for over a year."

Bruce grumbled something under his breath but said nothing more.

"Those things you said about her," Dick said slowly again, "All those nights you spent in her room, making sure she fell asleep with you there... I didn't think you were capable of caring about anyone _that_ much."

Jason said nothing. He didn't feel embarrassed when he usually would have. It was his best friend, after all. She'd come to him when she was seventeen after the second time running away, knowing she could trust him. She'd come to him many times, and he had tried to understand her world when she wouldn't tell him about whatever had happened, and understood it far too well when she did tell him everything that was wrong in her life.

"And this is you we're talking about." The first and former Robin shook his head in disbelief. "Darn it, Jason."

"I didn't do a thing," he said, growing irritated at the other man's assumptions that he was no good for the girl who was, unknown to him at that very second, fast asleep, passed out from the sleep she'd been avoiding for over three days now. "You two should have told her the truth, straight off the back. Stop blaming me and think about what how she'd be if you'd waited any longer. I know her better than anyone, and I know that there is a certain time limit on things for her. She would have taken your arm off with her bare hands, Dicky."

"True." Dick rarely agreed with anything Jason Todd ever said.

"So why did you kidnap her?" Bruce asked, glaring.

"You _did_ send her to spy on me," he said. When Bruce didn't deny this, he rolled his eyes. "And she agreed to spy for me. I guess that deal is off, though." He threw back his head and laughed.

"How can you be laughing after your best friend ran away sobbing into the night?" Dick asked, glaring. The two had never really gotten along.

Jason didn't need to defend or enforce what he knew with words: there had been relief, amongst other emotions, in the girl's eyes. It was fine with him if he had been the only one to see it.

"Whatever," he shrugged and turned to leave. "Now, if you excuse me, I am going to go do my job."

"Right, killing drug lords or scaring them into working for you."

"Aren't you supposed to be working, Bruce? You, too, Dick. Go get Mr. Snuggles out of a tree and leave me the hell alone."

"Stay away from her," Dick warned as Jason disappeared into the alley he'd come from.

He didn't respond as he put his helmet back on, hopped on his motorcylce, and sped away from the two heroes in plain sight. He wasn't going to bother her. Tomorrow night, though, he intended on seeing her. He needed to, face to face, alone.

_She'd better be okay when I find her._ He shook his head slightly as he headed back to his hideout, sensing the night drawing to a close. It would be good seeing her, actually seeing her up close and without the hood, for the first time in five years.

_I'm looking forward to it._

**A/N: please review!**

**what do you think so far? any opinions?**

**Thanks for reading! (this is NOT anywhere near the end...i think, i hope, lol!)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hiya! Thanks to those who have stuck with me this far or have stumbled upon this little thing, and if you're STILL reading this than I hope you enjoy the next chapter(s)! Please review and tell me what you think!**

**FYI: I put a PART ONE on the first chapter because i wanted to make this story longer but not divide into 2 stories. please don't hate meh!**

**Enjoy!**

Audri had slept the entire day away. It was almost nine o'clock, and she had just gotten out of the shower and eaten a meal that had consisted of baked beans, a deli sandwich, and an oat bar. She'd almost felt sick after cleaning her plate: she rarely had even a yogurt for dinner, unless Dick or Bruce insisted that she eat something more filling.

All she had thought about since waking up around seven in the cool evening was Jason: his face, his build, his voice, his brilliant eyes that were always smirking at her... everything. She didn't want to believe it was actually him. But it was, and she knew that it was the truth. Only an hour ago had Bruce called her and told her about how he'd come to be the living, breathing, murdering man he was now and why and what had happened after Jason had been blown up. But it had been _six years_...and all that time, he'd been alive. She realized that she couldn't stay mad at Bruce for keeping it from her for a year: she had thrown his chair across the room, despite her body which had weakened over the years from the lack of nutrition and training exercises, but had forgiven him. She had no idea how she could forgive him or Dick or even Alfred, but she had.

She knew about Ra's Al Ghul's little fountain of youth. She'd hated him for only a moment before realizing he'd tried giving back what he'd brutally taken, not just from Bruce, Alfred, and Dick, but her as well. He'd brought back the true Jason Todd. That was what she'd thought about all of this. His dark streak had come out more as he'd grown older, and apparently all he'd needed was a little while in death's embrace and he was who his soul had chosen him to be: dark, broken, pained, and violent. But not bad. No, he was still good. An anti-hero, nonetheless, but still good.

She had on skinny jeans, white flats, a tank top, and the same jacket she'd worn the night before. She sighed as she stepped out into the hall and locked the door shut behind her. She knew she had to go and find him, but had to be careful about it. Word on the street was that the Red Hood had a little spy, and her description was everywhere. The punch she'd taken only a day ago had left a large, nasty bruise on her belly, and the back of her head was tender from the smashing it'd received. The bruises from the handcuffs were dark. She had other scrapes and bruises in her body, and guessed she had been _dragged_ when out cold to the Red Hood's hideout.

She ran out into the street again, but had a different place in mind other than her old warehouse. Jason had been patient with her. Jason didn't have patience. He'd give a deadline, and know he would kill if the deadline wasn't met. He'd given her more time to get the shock out of her system than she had expected him to. Honestly, she had expected him to wake her as she slept the day away in the dusty corner of the warehouse, but he had left her alone, to let her gather her thoughts as best a shocked young woman who'd just found out the person she cared about most was alive after six years of thinking he was six feet underground.

She turned a few corners, went down a few alleys, being careful to avoid hot spots for thugs who belonged to crime lords like her Red Hood and the unpredictably angry Black Mask. She found herself going into a multi-floored parking garage, running as fast as her weak body would allow her to, going up, not pausing to pay any attention to the curious stares she got as she tried to avoid shoving men aside who stepped in her path.

She eventually reached the sixth level, almost out of breath and ready to collapse, when she was completely alone. _God, I'm so freaking stupid._ Anyone could ambush her here, anyone could hurt her here, and no one would hear her screams if that was all that she was left to do.

"Going somewhere?" a heartbreaking, familiar voice asked from a little ways away, making her stumble into the railing. Breathing hard, she turned around slowly to see Jason, without hood or mask, leaning up against a concrete pillar.

"Uh," was all she could wheeze, bending over at the stitch in her side. It had been too long since she'd run this far, this fast, to talk to someone worth speaking to.

"That's what I thought," he said, making his way toward her in what seemed like only a single second. There he was, not six inches away, looking down at her bent over form. She straightened up as best she could, still breathing painfully. "You're a real idiot for coming out here. _Alone_. Unarmed."

"_Don't_ start with the lecture," she groaned, not able to take her eyes off of his handsome face. _Wait, what?!_ Why would she even look away? _Maybe it's been so long..._ she tried to shake any thought from her head so her mind wasn't crowded. The lecture had been something Dick had loved giving the two when Jason came home to her with a broken bone or a bullet wound. All about safety, protection, the basics you needed to know to survive Gotham. It was so hard to believe that he was right there, in front of her.

He smirked at her when she grumbled, "You got taller." Indeed he had. He was more muscular than she remembered and yes, he was much, much taller. She stood up straight, and was dismayed to find that the top of her head barely reached his chin.

"You shrunk." He said. He leaned down to get a better look at her. Since she was backed up against the railing, she had nowhere to go. His eyes narrowed. "Something's different about you."

"Exhaustion?" she suggested.

"Try again," he said.

"Loneliness?"

"You do just fine on your own." _If only you knew the truth to that statement._

"Fear?"

"No," he said, frowning.

"How about heartbreak and depression that came gift wrapped the day I found out you died?"

He seemed visibly hurt by this statement, but she had to say it. "Didn't plan on dying," he muttered. He was standing so close. She had the urge to fling herself at him and give him the biggest hug she could, but felt like she should wait. _Is there something wrong with me? Probably. I did just find out that my best friend had been alive for six. freaking. years._

"Didn't plan on dying?" she repeated, shaking her head. "Jason Peter Tod..." she shook her head again, biting her lip. The depression was lessened by this, but the damage had been permanent. His looked turned cold, but only lasted for a moment before she whispered, "Promise me something."

"Sure," he said slowly, his eyes narrowing further. "But it depends on what it is."

"Promise me you'll—" her voice cracked and she slapped a hand over her mouth at the words trying to escape her lips. She took a deep breath before finishing her sentence, "Promise me you won't die again." She felt so stupid for saying this. He couldn't promise that. She was about to open her mouth and say something even more stupid, but then she knew it was alright. A grin spread across his face as he smothered the petite girl in a bear hug.

"You know how I said I can keep no promises?" he asked her, ruffling her hair in the way that he knew that agitated her.

"Yeah?" she muttered, ducking away from him, scowling.

"I can't promise you that I won't die again, but I'll promise you this: for you, I would try to come back if I did."

She beamed. "Thank you," she said, nearly choking on emotion.

"But I'll need a favor from you in return," he said.

Her eyebrows shut up. "What would that be?"

"I'll let you know when I do."

She shrugged. "Whatever. But here's a list of things I won't ever do for you ever again," he gave her a strange look when she began her list, counting off on her fingers as she went: "I will _not_ do your share of the dishes, I will _not_ do your laundry _or_ clean your room, I will _not_ do your homework for you, I will _not_ clean the mansion for you when you get into trouble..."

She laughed when he frowned. "That was only twice!" he said.

"Yeah, but both times you asked me to do it!" she giggled. _How long has it been since I giggled? Six years, no doubt._

"It's good to see you happy," he smirked.

"It's good to see you with that look on your face," she shot back.

"What look?" he asked, trying to look innocently, but failed. Even as a boy, he'd never looked innocently. He'd been the very definition of trouble since before he'd become Robin. He had a juvenile record, after all. What more screamed "trouble! trouble! trouble"?

"That look," she repeated. His smirk reached his eyes, filling her with happiness.

_A happiness that probably won't last._

Her smile vanished. Despite the truth to that thought, it stung. She _needed_ it to last, to remain, to somehow stick with her. If she lost him again, she would never be the same. _What's with all the optimism?_ she wondered sarcastically.

"Clarify," Jason said, crossing his arms, his eyes narrowing again. He knew her so well sometimes she wished she could have at least one thought that he couldn't see on her face. _But then what would be the point in having him as my best friend if he couldn't read me like an open book?_

"I won't have you alive forever," she frowned sadly.

His eyes widened. "Audri?"

"I won't have you alive forever," she repeated, more sadly this time. "You'll get taken away from me again. Or I from you. I just know it." _Audri Elizabeth Baron, there is something very, very wrong with you. How can you say these things at a time like this? Why can't I ever be optimistic? Oh, yeah, the person I loved most is back from the dead and I'm scared that this is all a nightmare and that I'll wake up alone. Oh, God...did I just think 'love'!? I'm crazy! Oh God, oh God, I'm losing it! Does he think I'm nuts? I hope not..._

He took her by the shoulders, and shook her once, snapping her out of her sudden cascade of thoughts. "Let's be positive, okay?" he asked seriously.

She nodded once, but muttered, "it's true. You know and I know it."

He rolled his eyes. "That won't happen," he said.

"Yeah, 'cause you're Superman," she said, rolling her eyes in the same way he had.

"It won't happen," he said more to himself than to his friend.

She nodded again, and he let go of her slowly, watching her every move. She wiped her eyes again when tears began to form. She swore under her breath.

"Crybaby," he teased.

"Jerk," she shot back, swinging a fist in his direction. He dodged it easily, laughing.

"Your aim hasn't gotten as bad as I thought in the last few years," he smirked at her, "but it could use a lot of work."

"Right, because you always fought perfectly," she said, trying to hit him again, scowling.

"No, because we all know I'm better at you and since you're too stubborn to admit that you'll never be as good."

She giggled again, stumbling backwards. "That may be," she smiled, "but I'll always run faster than you."

"Not always," he argued, ducking one of her kicks. She could still fight. _Good,_ he thought to himself. "If you wanted to run right now, I would catch you."

With that said, Audri took off running in the opposite direction, just to prove him wrong. _This is the Audri that died with me,_ he realized as she shouted insults over her shoulder as she sped up, _it's still there, but..._

"Come and get me!" she shouted, finally making him start running after her. They'd done this all the time, back before his death. He would say she couldn't do something, like scale a building or run a certain distance without him beating her, and she would go right off and prove to him that she very well could. He was easily catching up to her, because even though she'd gotten the head start, she'd already ran a great distance to get to this place.

When she was almost in reach, he managed to get a little ahead of her and trip her so she would go hurling through the air and slam into another concrete pillar without getting and scratches or major bruises. She glared at him as she rolled over onto her side, picking herself up gingerly. He had never been one to play fair.

"Cheater," she grumbled, dusting herself off, wincing when she irritated the bruise one of Jason's—the Red Hood's—henchmen had given her. _I will kick his sorry butt if I see him again. Or I'll run. Yeah, I'll run for it._

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Tell your leprechaun not to punch me so hard next time," she grumbled. "It kind of hurts to have all the wind knocked out of you and then have your head slammed into a wall, and then getting your butt dragged all the way down to the docks."

He shook his head. "Maybe you should watch the news sometime," he offered sarcastically, knowing how much she hated the media for trying to find out everything about everyone when it was none of their buisness. He knew exactly who she was talking about. Her old self was coming back more and more with him here: the insults, the sudden attacks, everything. "It'll let you know which parts of Gotham not to go to."

"But I don't _feel_ like it," she said. "I really like going where I want to. Are you going to draw lines for me to cross or something now?"

He sighed. "No, you'll just piss someone else off it isn't one of my guys."

"Let them know to leave me be. I like walking around at night."

He shook his head. She would never learn. _I completely forgot what a rebel she used to be._ "It's dangerous."

"So are you."

He laughed. "It really is great to see you again. Oh, and by the way: everyone on the street thinks your my spy."

"But I'm not."

"I know that."

"So how come everyone else doesn't know that?" Being a snitch was a very poor choice of employment for anyone who would be willing or desperate enough to take it as a living. It usually got you killed, tortured, or both.

He shrugged. "There are some things I can't control. But I'll let my guys know."

She shook her head sadly at him, smiling again. She heard her stomach gurgle and frowned at the sudden noise. _Please don't be sick! I know I ate too much, but c'mon, Jason does NOT need to see me be sick!_

"You get enough to eat?" he asked.

"Too much," she clarified unhappily. "I kind of... stopped eating right a while ago."

"No wonder you're made of sticks."

She scowled defiantly. "Don't brag about you being taller!"

"It isn't my fault you shrunk," he said smugly.

"I did not shrink—"

"Um, _yeah_, you did."

She scowled. Her eyelids were growing heavy, she realized. _How can I be freaking SLEEPY at a time like THIS?! AUDRI, DON'T YOU DARE..._

Her thoughts began to grow fuzzy, and she rubbed her eyes.

"For the first time you're actually tired," Jason noted.

"Great observation, Sherlock," she shot back, "care to make another great discovery?"

"Not tonight," he smirked. "Need a ride home?"

"I am not going anywhere—"

"If Dick and Bruce knew I was here with you, now, depriving you of sleep, they'd come after me," he said, taking her hand as he led her in the direction she'd run off in. The two eventually located Jason's motorcycle. He put on his signature helmet and got on, and she climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his chest in order not to fall down like the last time she had when he'd tried teaching her to ride one of these things. He started it up and in a blur they were speeding down the ramp at an alarmingly fast speed and were on the streets of Gotham once again.

_Don't fall off,_ Jason willed silently, smirking when he felt his friend's head slump against his shoulder in exhaustion. _Please just don't fall off again like you did last time._

**A/N: please review! what do you think of it so far? let me know! thanks so much for reading and reviewing :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thanks again to everyone who has read this. it means a lot!**

**Take a wild guess on who makes an entrance here...**

While Jason dropped Audri off, an unsuspecting pair of eyes were watching the two. The girl was smiling, the Red Hood was shaking his head. The pair of eyes watched as the girl disappeared into the apartment complex and the Hoodie speed away. A smile accompanied those creepy eyes. So this was Hoodie's little spy? So be it!

He made his way towards the apartment building, knowing Batman or Night Wing could come knocking. Was she a spy for all of them, too? He would find out. Maniacal laughter threatened to escape his lips. He clamped a gloved hand over his mouth, a knowing, crazed grin covering his face.

He was going to find out everything about this little spy. And even if she didn't know anything, he was still going to have fun trying to get her to tell him something worth living for!

**A/N:**

**Yeah, yeah, I know, SUE ME. super short? yeah! but now you know who it is, riiiiiiiiiight?**

**review! :D**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: ooooohhh the mystery of it all. XD**

**If you've made it this far into the story I thank thee! thanks for reading and reviewing! :D**

_I shut the door._

_I walked up the stairs._

_I reached to unlock my apartment door._

_And then something was yanked over my mouth, and I breathed in whatever chemical was soaked into the rag._

_Chloro-something, right?_

_Then everything went dark._

Audri became of aware of...well, _aware_. _How long have I been out? An hour? Two? Who did this?_ She felt cold. She tried to move, but realized her eyes were still closed. _Am I dead? Dear God, I hope I'm not dead. That would be a bummer._ She tried wiggling her toes. She remembered Jason telling her something about making sure she could wiggle her fingers or toes to make sure she wasn't paralyzed or worse, but she couldn't focus on anything yet.

_I'm freezing cold! Where's my jacket?_

She struggled to open her eyes, and when she finally did, a bright light met her. She blinked several times, refusing to have them shut again for a lengthy bit of time. She felt something painfully biting into her wrists and ankles and somehow figured that she was sitting up. _Tied to a chair?_

She realized there was a single, naked light bulb hanging high above her, like a single star in a cloudy night sky. She looked down at herself.

A sudden fire seemed to be lighting up the entire left side of her face. It was scorching, and she gritted her teeth against the pain. How could she had managed to numb that in her sleep? It should have been the first thing she felt...

Her coat was gone. She looked around wildly as her eyes re-adjusted to darkness once again and saw it hanging neatly on the wall as if she lived here...where _here_ was. Her hair felt tangled and matted. The scorching on the left side of her face mystified her. Had someone hit her there? Or cut her? Was a wound or scratch infected? _It feels like it's_ everywhere, she thought grimly, _I wonder how horrific it really is._

When a maniacal laugh reached her ears from the back of the room she was in, she knew.

_Someone help me._

"Oooooh, look who's woken up," the Joker cackled as he sprang in front of her, a sick grin on his face, his eyes shining with violence. _When had he broken out? It had been an entire year since that night...__he's got to know about Jason. He has to. How should we play this, Audri?_

"You don't look too happy," he told her. She noted the new purple suit and the knife in his hand.

_Covered in dried blood._

She eyed it carefully.

"Oh, yes! I had some fun while you were sleeping! Hey, can I tell you a secret?" He leaned closer to her, twirling the knife in his hand as if it weren't a dangerous, life-taking object. As if it was a harmless little thing.

Nothing was harmless. Everything was dangerous.

"Are you crushing on someone?" Audri asked, deciding to play dumb. _This has to be about Jason. I don't know how I know, but I just do!_ This was probably the worst idea, but why not find out what the clown knew? How much did he even know?

"Good guess, but, try again," he giggled. She rolled her eyes at him. Despite everything, she still found him very aggravating and just wanted him far away from her so she wouldn't have to hear his taunting, haunting laughter. He had killed her Jason, after all. She would never let him see it, but the Joker sent fear into her very bones in the way no other human had.

He didn't deserve to be called human; a sad excuse for one, but human still. _A murdering, insane, cruel, horrible, monstrous, human._

"Um, you want to kill me?"

"Wrong again! There'd be no fun in killing you...directly, anyway!"

She rolled her eyes again.

"So, are you really the Hoodie's spy?"

"So is that what you're going to call him all night? Because I have way more important things to do that do not concern the likes of you." She smirked up at him when he frowned, but it vanished when he smirked right back.

"I take that as a yes, then," he giggled, tossing the knife up in the air in a show that he knew _exactly_ how to use it.

"Actually, I'm not a spy," she said honestly. "Batman tried to get me to spy for him as well, but I quit both jobs."

"Oh?" he asked, faking extreme interest.

"I wasn't in the mood to spend the rest of my life hiding in my apartment in fear of someone shooting me. No, I'd rather stay in my apartment because of depression than being afraid of getting shot at."

He nodded. "Hmmm. Do you know who this Hoodie _is_, love bird?"

She visibly flinched. He had known her even when Jason had been Robin to the rest of the world. He'd ended up saving her most times, but there was that one time... _when the Joker tried to kill me..._ and Bruce had let Jason give the madman a few broken bones as a warning. He hadn't even known they knew each other until he'd heard the death threats uttered by the second Boy Wonder.

"Aww, still hurts?"

"Yeah, you lunatic, it does. He was my best friend!"

"Don't you mean _is_? And we both know you love him! _C'mon_, love bird, don't deny it!"

She blinked in fake shock. "_What_?" she managed an incredulous tone. "You're even crazier than I thought! We were best friends! Always will be, even in death!"

"See, you got that one _wrong_, love bird," he said, dancing around her, cackling. "I know for a fact that you're his spy! I saw you earlier tonight getting off his bike! You two looked very cozy, yes you did!"

She shook her head. "Okay, so the guy's nice to me. So what?"

"Oh, birdy, birdy, birdy," he said in mock disappointment, shaking his head at the liar in front of him. "You see, Hoodie knows you pretty well."

"You don't say," she said, rolling her eyes once again to put on a show. "Knowing where I live makes him smart, does it? That makes you a rocket scientist, then."

"You're hilarious," the Joker said drily. "Anyways! The love of your life isn't dead."

Her jaw dropped. She didn't like faking anything, but knew she had to in order to get out of this alive. "No way."

He clapped his hands and hollered with laughter ringing in her ears, "Oh, yes, love bird! Your own birdy dearest is back from the dead and _walking_!"

_Ya' think i didn't know that already?_

"You're lying."

"You're stupid if Batman hasn't told you yet!"

She sighed, shifting in her metal chair. The ropes were making her wrists bleed. She didn't need that. _At first glance at these new wounds, someone'll have a major freak out session. Jason'll think I hurt myself...why do I even care?! Audri, you could DIE here! Just like that! You're ridiculous for talking to yourself like this! Stupid!_

"If you know," Audri said carefully, "then why haven't you announced it to the world yet?"

"That wouldn't be any _fun_," he huffed. "It's our little secret, just between me, you, Bats, and Bird Boy Number Two!"

"Don't call him that!" she suddenly shouted. "He's not just a replacement, you know!"

"Ohhh, so you do love him!"

"He was my best friend. I _hate_ him. Can I go now? I kind of want to ask the Red Hood if this is really true or not—"

"There would be no fun in LYING to you about it!" the Joker shouted, stopping in front of her, poking the painless side of her face with the jagged blade. "It's so much to fun to have me be the one telling you!"

"You have no proof," she hissed. "And I only loved him as a _friend_!"

_Audri? How come you feel like you're lying to yourself?! Ahhhh! I've got to be going crazy! Stop thinking like that! You're being all dreamy and stupid! He's only your best friend. No, not only..._

"_Sure _you did, love bird, sure you did," the Joker said as if she were a child being defiant of orders, clear and simple.

"Prove it." She hissed.

"If I did I'd have to kill you, and then there wouldn't be any FUN!" he giggled and skipped around her in a wide circle again. "I _would_ kill you, but then Bats wouldn't be able to stop the zombified lover boy from killing me, and where's the fun in _that?!_"

_It wouldn't be fun, but it'd be nice to have your existence snuffed out. For everything and everyone you've killed, taken away, and destroyed._

"I totally forgot why we don't hang out anymore," she said, glaring at him. "He. Is. Dead."

"But he isn't! How else would he know where you live?"

"Uh, because he's the freaking _Red Hood?_"

"Truuuuuue," he said, putting on a mockingly thoughtful expression. "But it's also because he loves you too much to let you out of his sight!"

"Uh-huh." _Jason will have his head on a stick for all of Gotham to see if he finds out he's kidnapped me._

_Does anyone even know that I'm gone? Will they ever find me? Am I gona DIE in here? Because the only way I'll ever die is that the last thing I get to see on this earth is Jason Todd...and those annoying green eyes of his..._

"Well, kiddo, I'd best be going. Better have that scratch looked at," he said suddenly skipping away and out of my line of sight. His laughter bounced off the walls. _Warehouse?_

"You're just going to leave me in here? How about blowing me up first?"

Another maniacal laugh was her reply. "Oh, love bird, I think I'll just wait and see if he finds you! If he finds just in time, tell him I said hello. If he doesn't...well, since he knows the secret to immortality he'll probably just forget about you after a while, won't he?"

With that said, she heard a door slam, and then silence overtook her. At first, it was peaceful. But then a faint buzzing sound filled her ears, and she had to hum to herself to make it go away. So she wouldn't feel totally alone in this place.

_So am I going to just sit here?_

_Yeah._

_So is there no chance of escape?_

_I don't have enough energy to do that._

_Will I ever see Jason again?_

_I hope so..._

* * *

**End of Part One**

* * *

**A/N: I update way to fast. oh well!**


	11. (Part II) Chapter 11

**A/N: See, I did the Part 1, Part 2, thing because at first i was just going to leave the story at the end of the last chapter but then again I want to finish this DECENTLY so I just put a merry part 2 to this and WAH LA.**

**Thanks so much for everything! THIS IS NOWHERE NEAR THE MERRY END. ha. ha, ha!**

* * *

**Part Two**

* * *

Bruce, Dick, and Jason were all in the Batcave, sharing an uncomfortable silence.

"So what's this about?" Jason asked finally, gazing up at the picture of Audri on the screen of the computer. His helmet was on, but that did nothing to hide the murderous edge in his voice. He knew something had gone wrong, and it had something to do with his best friend.

"I went to go check on her a while ago," Dick said slowly, pulling out something from behind his back. "When I got to the door, this was pinned to it."

He revealed a joker card.

Jason's jaw clenched and unclenched in fury. He had the sudden urge to start throwing things. "HE...TOOK...HER?" He finally shouted after letting the information sink in. He grabbed Dick by the collar of his suit and slammed him up against the wall. "YOU JUST DECIDED TO COME BACK HERE AFTER FINDING HER GONE? SHE COULD BE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU, RICHARD!"

"Calm down," Bruce said. "He hasn't killed her."

"And how would you know?" Jason hissed angrily, not letting go of the man in his grasp. "Did Joker send you a note?"

"Yes."

He turned around, pressed a button, and suddenly a video was playing.

_"HELLO, GENTLE-BATS AND BIRDY BOYS!"_

The Joker.

The screen went from black to bright, and to Jason's horror, the camera focused on a form of a girl in a chair, her head tilted back, rolled to the side. The entire left side of her face was bloody, bloody, bloody. He knew that he must have cut her up. Her hair was matted with her own blood, and her arms were streaked with dried blood and dirt. She was without her jacket, and she looked dead to him already.

"See, I have Bird Boy Number Two's girlfriend here all knocked out! No, Batsy, I will not tell the man in love next to you where this pathetic little girl is being held! By the time you find her SHE'LL ALREADY BE DEAD!"

Maniacal laughter filled the Batcave. It made Jason shake with rage. He'd let go of Jason. Bruce put a hand on his shoulder as the Joker maneuvered the camera to face a familiar face belonging to a clown they all would have loved to have seen dead or locked up.

"Now, looky here. I'm going to give her the news she'd never thought she'd hear: her dear old replacement, back from the dead! Yes, the love of her life, a zombie! Bet you didn't tell her, Hoodie! You want to _protect_ her? Come and get her! Oh, and don't spoil all the fun! You better get here soon...she won't last long." Another string of laughter followed this statement as the camera clicked off.

"I'm going to kill him." Jason said coldly, the only thing on his mind being Audri. Seeing her face like that...mangled and distorted and brutalized. Anger burned down to his bones. He wanted blood spilled. More importantly, he wanted a certain clown's blood spilled.

"Jason—" Bruce began.

"I'm going to go get some insight on where Audri might be," Jason said, not caring to argue about what he should and shouldn't do. "You're welcome to come along and help."

"Jason!" Dick called after him. "What are you going to do? We have no leads! Nothing!"

"I'll get some by the end of the night," he vowed.

"From who?" the two men behind him demanded as he put more distance between them with each furious stride.

Jason didn't reply.

His first stop was Black Mask. If anyone were to know anything about her kidnapping, it would be the Black Mask.

_I'll find you, Audri,_ he promised her silently, hoping he wouldn't have to break it. _I'll save you._

**A/N: sorry its so short. you'll get more some other day! plze review!**

**Thank you for reading/viewing/reviewing/everything! it means a lot! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: thank you to the reviewer who said "a bit fast" I apologize I tend to do that A LOT lol. this is what i like to call a thinking chapter. i think you can guess why after reading this. its reflective, maybe**

**Thanks again for everything, you guys rock!**

**WARNING: might seem a little INSANE, k? but she isnt, i swear!**

_How long have I been in this place? I don't even have a watch. Or a cell phone. Or one of those annoying communicators Bruce seems to have with him everywhere he goes. I'm officially screwed, aren't I?_

Audri had actually been in the warehouse for only two hours, but it already felt like weeks. From time to time, she would talk randomly to herself, tap her foot, sing, and hum, just to make sure she stayed sane while all alone. There were high, broken windows so far away from her she thought they weren't real. She knew that the Joker would not be coming back for her, unless he had something else planned for her.

In her time so far, she had noticed that the warehouse was empty, silent, and haunting. The only thing of interest in the room, besides the light bulb, which had gone out some time ago, was the trap door she was stationed on. She glared down at her restricted feet. It was very wide, disguised well to blend in the with dirty concrete floor. She realized that the Joker had the trigger, or whatever set it off, making her fall down...onto _what_? Would she be impaled on spikes? Would she land in a pool of water and drown? Would she simply fall into a dark abyss and break a few bones and her body, and starve to death? Were there alligators waiting for her? _God, you're going crazy Audri._

_Hey, maybe this is a good time to think things through._

She sighed, knowing that if the Joker was recording this, she would seem just as insane as he was. She was going to have a conversation with herself, and she already knew what it was going to be about. She decided to act like she was having a conversation with someone else, so it would make her feel just a little more sane than the silence was making her feel. Or did this make her crazy?

_Do you like Jason?_

"What do you mean?" she asked herself out loud, hating how her voice sounded so loud in her ears, but welcomed it because it got rid of the buzzing in her ears the silence made.

_Just answer the question._

"As a friend?"

_Yeah, I guess, if you want to start there._

"Of course."

_Do you love him?_

"Uh...he's my best friend..."

_That isn't what I meant._

She thought a long moment. "You mean...as a boyfriend, right?"

_Yeah, Sherlock, that's exactly what I meant._

"I don't really know."

_You have all the time in the world to figure this out, Audri._

"I know."

_Want to go over all the pros and cons?_

"I'll pass," she said, smiling. She knew Jason inside and out...or, at least, she had...before his death.

_Give it a try._

"Well, he's nice to me...caring, protective, handsome..."

_Ha!_

"Oh, shut up! That does not mean I love him!"

_You sure 'bout that?_

"Yes!"

_Liar. You're TALKING to yourself. You know yourself better than anyone else on Earth...well, save for Jason, who can read you like you're NOT the freaking Webster's Dictionary._

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, glaring at the imaginary person in front of her that was really herself.

_It means you're so freaking COMPLICATED that NO ONE understands you! But somehow Jason does!_

"Thanks," she said drily.

_Okay...what do you think about everything? About his resurrection?_

"I already talked with my other self about this."

_Would you just go along with it?_

"Fine, fine," Audri said. At least arguing with herself was entertaining. "He...you know how violent he was, in the life before...?"

_Duh._

"Well, this Jason that I know now. It feels right. I mean, it's horrible he's murdering and all that, but somehow, this just feels like the real him. I saw how he was...he wouldn't be killing now if he had lived this far, where we are now, but his dark streak would have come out more. This? This should scare me. But...but it doesn't. It just doesn't."

_Don't you feel crazy for loving him? Oh, right, I'm sorry, I have to say 'like' because you're still mulling over that possibility._

Aurdi sighed. "No, I don't feel crazy. It feels right."

_You know...a part of you sort of died with him six years ago?_

"Yes."

_Maybe you can get it back. I mean, since he's alive. You know, when you raced him across the parking garage a while ago! That was the old you!_

"But I'll lose him!" she suddenly found herself wanting to scream. "I'll lose him all over again! I just know it! I can feel it in my bones."

_Let's just get back to the topic of Love Or Like at hand, okay?_

"Sure."

_How come the JOKER, of ALL PEOPLE, thinks you're in love with the guy?_

"Beats me."

_You remember how he almost killed him last year? About that night in Crime Alley?_

"Yeah, I remember Bruce telling me about that."

_Imagine what will happen if you wind up dead before you see him again._

"Too bad I'll miss it," I said, shaking my head.

_You really think you're not getting out of this, are you._

"Not really."

_Since WHEN did you turn into a pessimist? When?!_

"I'm not pessimistic," Audri sighed miserably, "I just have a bad feeling."

_You don't know that we won't get out of here. You KNOW Jason won't forget about you, even if he does know the secret to eternity. You think if he forgot you he'd let you live after being kidnapped by his henchmen?_

"No," she whispered honestly.

_Good._

"Even if he does come...this trap door. The Joker must have it rigged, right? He wouldn't make it that easy."

_You're not talking to yourself because you want to get out of here, remember? You're doing this because A) you do NOT want to go insane before you die because that would be just plain WRONG, and B) you're trying to figure out if your wonderful Boy Wonder is The One._

"I don't believe in that stuff."

_Love? Seriously?_

"No. 'The one' and soul mates and 'meant to be', that kind of stuff."

_So are you telling me you two were NOT meant to be best buds, even if death got in the way?_

"I...I don't believe you can always love someone forever. Some things are meant to be, yes, but not for me. Nothing lasts forever, but we can try to make it last as long as we possibly can."

_Go on._

Audri thought for a moment before replying. This hardly seemed insane anymore. It almost felt normal.

_Focus._

"Jason... Jason managed to escape death. I don't know how I can still love him the way I do...whatever that way even is...after all that he's done and all that he is..."

_Don't keep me in suspense, spit it out!_

"Yes," she said after a few long moments of silence. "After all that he's done and that he is... I love him."

_The genius figured it out, FINALLY! But what kind of love?_

"Well... wait, did you _expect_ me to say that?"

_I. Am. Your. Freaking. IMAGINARY FRIEND that is actually YOU. I've known from the BEGINNING. You've always loved him! Always, always, always! It just took you FOR-EVER to realize! You've loved him from the first night you actually let him help you fall asleep. Remember that night, Audri?_

"I...it doesn't feel like the things you read about...and yes, I do remember. How could I forget?"

_You_ don't_ feel anything new because you've felt this way FOREVER about the guy. I mean, you didn't know what to make of it at first, because of your mother, her boyfriend, your horrific, stupid school that she sent you away to...all the bruises you had when you ran away to Gotham..._

"Don't remind me. So all this time...?"

_To clear it all up for you and your very confused self, yes. All this time you've loved him. Do you know why you haven't been able to DO anything about it until now?_

"Because he's my best friend?"

_Idiot._

"Don't insult me," Audri scowled.

_You're still an idiot. But allow me...no, YOURSELF, to explain this in a way so you can understand me loud and clear: you have never been loved before. Never. Your mother didn't even like you! She kept calling you stupid and her rich boyfriend just swatted things at you when you asked for something little, like dinner. At school, those students...they were so cruel. Remember that teacher, Mrs. Down? The mean old hag at the end of the corridor on the sixth floor? Remember all the screaming you did after trying to get off school property? The teachers were too scared to do anything for you! They ignored you! They did nothing, nothing to help you._

Audri didn't like the old images that flashed through her mind, playing back through the memories she'd kept buried so long she'd hoped they died inside of her. But they had only twisted her into the thing she was now. Jason's death had only helped the hell she'd been in for years, she realized. Old memories of that hag, with that emotionless look on her face and the cruel spark in her eyes.

_But then Jason came along. He was the only one...he is the ONLY one who has loved you like you have wanted someone to love you. Bruce and Dick care about you, sure...but not like Jason does. Remember when he found you, how stubborn and stupid he'd been when he'd dragged you to his home and he left you alone? And then he came in that night after hearing you scream in your sleep. He woke you up, and you let him hug you. You cried a lot that night. But he didn't call you weak or stupid or annoying like everyone else did when you cried, did he?_

"No."

_You fell asleep in his arms. And when you woke up, he was asleep on the floor. He never left your side._

Audri smiled as softly as she could as something began to warm her bones.

_Ha! You know that feeling, Audri? You. Are. ACCEPTING it! I'm so proud of you! You actually believe it now! About time you know. Hey...when did the SUN come up?_

Audri looked up. She hadn't even realized how long she'd spent talking to herself. In reality, she'd spent a good seven hours talking out loud and thinking.

_You hungry yet?_

"Not really."

_You DO realize you're lucky you actually stuffed something down your throat tonight, right?_

"Yeah, I do."

_Say it out loud._

"I love Jason."

_There you go! See how EASY that was! I'm so proud of you!_

"Shut up," she muttered.

_Ha ha, you're really going crazy, you know that? Remember. You're talking to yourself. This isn't healthy, at all._

"What else can I do?"

_Nothing. Good call on the Talking To Myself gig._

Audri rolled her eyes. "Oh, now I'm congratulating myself?"

_You did well! You admitted that you've been in love with Jason forever!_

"If I get out of this alive..."

_What, exactly, are you going to do?_

"Tell Jason."

_And how do you plan on doing that?_

"I'll just come out and say it, just like that."

_You'll cry. You can NOT just say "I love you" with a straight face._

"Oh, you know me too well!" she giggled, hiccupped, and then found herself sobbing.

_Crying won't help anything. You'll just die faster._

"So?"

_I thought you wanted to see Jason again and tell him I Love You._

"I do!"

_So save your tears for him! And they should be tears of joy, not anything else. Well, you can shed tears of relief, but mostly tears of joy. Got it?_

"Yeah." She shifted again, wondering what was under her feet again.

_If you die going through that thing, you are SO coming back because that is just a STUPID way to die._

"It's not stupid, it's horrible!"

_Whatever._

"I love him," she whispered to herself, her body growing numbed from sitting in the chair for so long. "I love him."

_You should tell him that._

"Do you think he...?"

_Ask him when you see him._

"But what if I don't see him ever again?"

_You pessimistic idiot. You will._

"I take that as an insult."

_Depression never did help your optimistic side. Did you ever even HAVE an optimistic side?_

"Now that's just mean! Of course I have one... I just don't use it!"

_Glass half full kind of girl? No way, Audri! Name one time in your life you were optimistic! You always worried when Jason came home late from a mission! You would always start to pace and then chew your nails and then twirl your hair around your fingers in that annoying way you do when you scared for him. Yeah, it only happens when you're worrying about HIM!_

"I really do love him," she whispered, surprised her bones weren't numbed with depression.

_Yeah, you really do. Hey, what time do you think it is?_

"No idea. It feels like I've been down here forever."

_If Jason heard you now he'd call you a crazy crybaby and expect you to try to hit him._

Giggling, she leaned back in her chair, her matted hair hanging limply in the air. The single, huge room that was the silent warehouse smelled modly. She'd already gotten used to it.

_Been a while since you giggled?_

"Earlier tonight...that was the first time in six years."

_I KNOW. I'm you!_

"You think I didn't know that?"

_I have to keep reminding you or else you really will go insane._

"True."

_Get some sleep. You'll die faster because of the lack of sleep than lack of food._

"Who told you that?"

_A friend did. Don't remember who._

"Huh."

Audri turned off the part of the brain she had been talking to. She didn't know if it had been the logical, rational, or crazy part of her brain, but she felt somewhat better. The warmth in her bones kept growing, thawing slowly. It felt very nice, to finally realize after taking a long while talking to one's self.

She closed her eyes, leaning back fully but careful not to tip over the chair, and began dreaming of the one and only thing she had to look forward to if she was getting out of this ordeal alive.

_Jason._

**A/N: please review! what did you think of this chapter?**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hiya! I really hoped the last chapter didnt bore or bother you. hope you liked it and hope you like this one! wow, chapter 13? I never expected to get this far. this must be a sign TO FINISH IT. ****Dont worry. I don't intend on ending ANY of my stories anytime soon :)**

**Read, review, and enjoy, good people of the internet!**

Jason stood in Black Mask's office. All of his men stood off to a distance, ready to pounce on him when he took the gun away from their boss's head. He was still sitting in his chair, the Red Hood behind him, his finger itching to pull the trigger.

"What do you want, money?" the Black Mask shouted, enraged.

"No, I want to know what you know about the Joker."

"He's locked up—"

"No, he isn't. He kidnapped someone I want back _dearly_, and if I find her dead, you'll have _hell_ knocking on your door." He pressed the gun harder into the other man's temple. Black Mask gritted his teeth. So he _did_ know about this. Which meant he knew where Audri was, or at least knew someone who knew another someone who knew where Audri was.

"What, can't live without your little spy?" the man spat.

Jason restrained himself from pulling the trigger then and there. He'd already killed six guards on his way in here. _Good riddance,_ he thought when he imagined Black Mask dead on the floor. "No, and she isn't my spy?"

"Oh, is she your—"

_"No."_ Jason, knowing exactly what crude word Black Mask had been about to call Audri, did something Bruce and Dick would surely yell at him for: he shot the man in the foot. He yelped, and then gritted his teeth against the pain. "Watch your mouth. You only got a few seconds left. Now _where_ is she?"

"What makes you think I know?"

"Because you seem to know everything around here."

The man glared, shaking his head ever so lightly. He was wondering how in the world the Red Hood knew about the Joker's little stunt and why he would even care if the girl wasn't his spy. The Red Hood didn't take hookers, and he was colder than ice, so what other options were left? A girlfriend? Everyone would know and everyone would be out to get her. A wife? Way too dangerous for the Red Hood. Why worry about someone when you have to watch your back every minute of every night you're outside?

Black Mask sighed heavily. He valued his own life over everything else, and he wasn't in the mood to die tonight at the hands of a man who'd kill without hesitation. Men like him weren't to be messed with.

"All I heard was a rumor," he grumbled. "Your spy is being kept in a warehouse, somewhere near the docks. That help you?"

"The exact location," Jason said, lowering his voice.

"I don't have it—"

"Lie to me again, and you'll be in hell before another word flies out of your mouth. Got it?" _I need to find her. It's been two days now._ This was the second night, and there had been no sign of his Audri anywhere. Yes, he considered her to be _his_, since she had no one else in the world, save for Bruce and Dick when they were being reasonable.

Black Mask boldly looked up at him. "You're a dead man. You know that?"

"Oh, believe me, I've known that for a while now."

"Warehouse 43-B. She'll be dead once you step in the door."

He took the gun away from his head, glaring, and, for good measure, pulled the trigger anyway. Another yelp rang out through the office, Black Mask doubling over in his chair. He had shot him in the opposite foot he'd already shot.

"You're dead!" he shouted after the man who had made a bold move and had jumped out the window, falling towards the ground, but using his grappling hook to scale the building across from his and begin running over rooftops. _Wonder if she's got a price on her head._

Oh, she had a price on her head alright, but it wasn't the one the man with the two bullet wounds was thinking about.

Audri was worth more than the world to Jason, and he was going to find her alive. He had to.

* * *

Jason knew where he was going. Not a moment ago had he laid eyes on the warehouse. He knew immediately that there would be something off to this rescue: a trap of some sort, that would result in Audri's death. _The Joker left me for dead. And then blew me up for good measure. Why wouldn't he do this to her?_ Against his own judgment, he'd called Bruce and Dick, who were now here with him, scanning the warehouse quickly.

A maniacal laugh filled the air, and the three men whirled around. The Joker stood on the ledge, grinning ear to ear, holding something in his right hand.

Bruce, now Batman, narrowed his eyes. It was a trigger. The clown's thumb was on the button. Dick, now Night Wing, was tensing, ready to pounce on the madman. The Red Hood, well, he was just plain old pissed off.

"Oh, how nice of you to join me," the Joker said, throwing his head back to laugh. "I am so glad you made it to the show the evening."

"What did you do to her?" Batman asked, ready to throw his baterang and just end his existence, but knew he couldn't do that.

"Oh, me? I just told her the truth! Hello, Bird Boy Number Two! Yes, I told you were walking around eating people's brains and that you were her dear old Robin!"

The Red Hood rolled his eyes under his helmet. _Of COURSE!_ The Joker would have done something like this eventually! He would have wanted to cause the person he loved most—yes, _loved,_ he had admitted this freely once he had come back from the dead, and hoped she felt the same way—all the pain he could. In this case, it was Audri. And he himself had caused her the most pain. Her heart had already been broken once, and he knew she was barely keeping it together...if she was even alive.

"She already knew," he said simply. "I told her two nights ago. Looks like I beat you to it."

The clown frowned. "_Really?_" he asked, examining the trigger with mock-great interest. "Because I could have sworn she thought you were still rotting int he ground."

"No," he said, "she saw me herself."

"Well, you just ruined all my fun," he grumbled. He suddenly brightened. "Oh well! At least I had a back-up plan." His eyes slide to the trigger, and then to the Red Hood. "Actually, bird boy, this was never a back-up plan! I was going to kill her anyways!"

"I thought there was no fun in killing her," Night Wing said.

"There isn't! And, no, she isn't already dead yet! I just drugged her so when she fell asleep only the kiss of her true love could wake her up!" he found this hilarious and clutched his side as he laughed again. Bringing up Snow White was hardly funny. So he'd drugged her then. "Oh, I'm not going to kill her," he said, "I'm just going to keep her in a place you'll never find her in! And THEN she'll die because you'll never see her ever again! I knew you'd come after he, bird boy number two!"

With his sickening signature grin, the clown grin and pushed the button.

Nothing happened.

He frowned, and pushed it again. Again, nothing happened. He shrugged, tossed it over his shoulder, and pulled out another trigger from his coat pocket! "That was a fake," he said, rolling his eyes. "Sil-ly me." With his eyes on the Red Hood, he pushed the button, and something shook the ground. Batman and Night Wing took this chance to tackle the clown, tumbling down, down, down to the ground. The Red Hood turned and jumped onto the ground, ramming his shoulder into the nearest door into the warehouse he could find. In the darkness, not ten feet away, was an empty space, filled with light. He ran over to it and realized it was a pit. A pit full of fire.

And Audri was right in the middle of it. Or so he thought.

He jumped in, not caring for his own safety, but the floor he landed on was drenched in gasoline and the flames licked at him constantly, but that did not stop him from reaching into the flames, searching frantically for the girl he loved more than anything else in existence.

When he finally got burned to a bad degree, he realized he could not find her. Wooden planks were falling down around him from the weak trap door, and he found the charred remains of the chair she'd undoubtedly been tied to, and with the singed ropes.

She could not be found.

Knowing he would very well die if he stayed any longer in this inferno, it took all his willpower to jump out of the pit and save himself from the sudden flames that had reached high up in the air, touching the warehouse roof. The old building was catching fire, and he knew he'd be dead in seconds. He dashed out and hurled himself around a corner as the building finally exploded, debris raining down on him. He came out to look at the wreckage of the place where his Audri had been. He could faintly hear Batman and Night Wing calling out his name, but all he could do was stare.

He'd let her die.

_It's all my fault._

**A/N: sorry its rushed! but i hope you like it. no, it isnt over. I WOULD TELL YOU IF IT WAS (duh)!**

**will probably update tomorrow or sunday, most likely tomorrow**

**review please, what did you think of it?**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: i have a twist in mind for this story...YOU WONT KNOW WHAT IT IS UNTIL YOU READ THE STORY ahhahahahaah but the twist will come later. so :p ! I did say i would update TODAY, and so it is my plan to update this TODAY(with more detail, i am so very sorry for the rushed chapter because i told a friend i would post it so she had something to read so i posted it as quickly as possible) (finished it in record time, too! XD)**

***Thank you to: HeartsMockingjay ****and XFatalities-of-the-sane-mindsX for reading and reviewing this! it means a lot! :)**

**Hope you like this!**

Jason was sitting in the Batcave. It was well into late morning now, with the sun hidden behind some clouds and people walking about. He wasn't supposed to be seen during the day: when he was out an about at night, he was in his element.

But he wasn't in the mood to go kill someone. No, he was in the mood to kill everyone and anyone he saw. So of course Bruce and Dick were keeping tabs on him.

A body had been found, curled up in the corner, eventually, a few hours ago. It was female, but there was no way to decide whether it had been Audri or another victim. But Jason knew her chances of survival were slim, if she were even still alive. He had stared at the charred remains for an hour, trying to decide if it was his friend or not.

Jason had almost dived headfirst into the remains of the warehouse to find a body, but he had been unsuccessful. Batman and Night Wing had disappeared and had come back as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to let the authorities know that their dear friend, Audri Elizabeth Baron, had been kidnapped by the Joker and had been inside when the fire had started. Jason stayed as the Red Hood throughout the night. He kept blaming himself for her death. He just knew in his heart that she was gone for good...or close to it, if she wasn't dead already. But if she was still alive, how could she have made it out? The rescue team had found nothing. He went over the night's events slowly in his head, trying to cope with his loss. His Audri, gone. _I never told her that I loved her._

The Joker had escaped, of course, and was now running free around Gotham, something everyone, even the worse of the criminals didn't want. After a while, Bruce had convinced Jason to just come out as Jason Todd, no one special. So he had, dressed casually. The police had asked Jason to come and see if he could identify the remains. Bruce had made up a brilliant tale that Jason was a friend of his and Dick's and that Audri had been his girlfriend. Jason had agreed, and had stared for a total hour, with no real conclusion. She was small enough to be her. But the bones were too charred to see if the marks of abuse still remained, which would have given him the information he needed to know if it was his best friend or if it was just another victim of one of the Joker's many horrific schemes.

Someone always died when it came to his schemes, though. That was something that could never be avoided, no matter how hard people tried to prevent it.

When he had come out of the room in silence, Dick and Bruce had wordlessly taken him to Wayne Manor. Shockingly, he hadn't protested it. Which made Dick think that Jason thought she was dead. For his sake, he hoped she wasn't. But chances of her not being burnt to a crisp were slimmer than nothing.

Jason sat in Bruce's chair. On the screen in front of him was a picture of Audri. It had been taken three years ago. Somehow, Bruce had managed to get to get out and socialize. Bruce often held fundraisers to keep up on his society status. She was wearing a red dress that barely reached her toes, which were decked out in red heels, something he knew she hated. The girl had preferred combat boots to heels, which had amused him most of the time when Bruce had forced them to go to events as children. Her hair was curled and shone in the light. A weak, but genuine smile was on her face. She had on tiny earings that had silver flowers hanging of them. He had given her those a week before his death. She was standing next to Dick, who was smirking at a white-haired man with a funny-looking nose that reminded her of the headmaster from those Harry Potter books.

Even with her sorrowful eyes and her ashen skin, she was still the most beautiful thing on the planet.

Jason wanted the Joker's blood on his hands. He had killed her; why couldn't he kill him?

He heard Dick walk in but he ignored him completely, not taking his eyes of the dead woman. There was no way she could have survived any more than twenty-four hours. It just wasn't possible.

Bruce came in afterward, but he ignored him, too. He ignored the remarks Alfred made about him having to eat eventually. His eyes were fixed on the picture, but his mind was filled with memories. He thought about all the happy ones, ones where she had waited for him to come home late at night so they could play video games until he passed out, times when she made him breakfast after he'd burnt the eggs he'd attempted to scramble. He remembered how many times he'd tackled her during their training sessions, and how many times she'd managed to punch him in the face after he teased her about not being able to be as good as him in combat.

"Jason," he heard Dick say as he put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Jason, you've sat there for hours."

Jason barely nodded, not caring. He had cried a bit earlier, when he was certain he was alone, but now he felt emotionless.

"Jason, we're out to go find the Joker."

"Leave me alone."

"Jason," Bruce began, but the glare he got cut him off.

"Leave me alone," he repeated. "I'll kill him tomorrow."

"You can't just sit here—"

"Yes, I can," Jason interrupted harshly, shooting Bruce a look. "And I will. Tomorrow, I will kill him. Now leave me alone."

Dick and Bruce exchanged glances. Jason needed to get out of here before he did something stupid.

"Do something productive," Dick offered desperately. He hated that the girl was dead, but he hated how Jason was dealing with it even more: he wasn't dealing with it at all. "Go scare someone, go steal Black Mask's employees, blow something up: anything!"

"Leave. Me. Alone."

Bruce shook his head. "We're all grieving—"

"Do _not_ give me that speech about moving on," he growled, his eyes never leaving the picture of Audri. "I'll do whatever I want, and I'm not moving."

Bruce shook his head. There was no use.

They left Jason alone, defeated.

They would try to help him when they got back from patrol.

**A/N: sorry, it would have been longer, but i have a plan! :)**

**please review! thank you for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: DUN DUN DUN. ****WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? ****This is a chapter that was inspired by ANOTHER chapter. :) ha. ha. ha.**

**ENJOY :D**

_I'm dead._

_Oh crap, yeah, I'm dead. But I hurt like...does death hurt?_

'I have no freaking idea, why don't you open your eyes?'

_Oh, wow, you're so nice when you're dead._

'Audri! I don't think we're dead.'

_How do you know?_

'I DON'T.'

_Well, then, I guess we're dead, then. Where am I? I feel cold?_

'Stop asking yourself stupid questions, you pessimistic idiot.'

_So is this death?_

'Guess so. Because you're not breathing. You don't even feel your own heartbeat. You can't see anything. Death totally sucks. Where's heaven?!'

_This could be hell._

'If this is hell than it's boring as hell.'

_Ha. Ha._

'Try to wake up.'

_I'm too tired._

'Do it! Do you want to see Jason or not?'

_I...I can't. I'm too tired. Maybe I'm not fully dead yet?_

'No duh, Sherlock, you're talking to yourself.'

_So what happened._

'You fell, got free, probably broke your left wrist while doing it, too. Smart of you, by the way. There was a tiny little hole. You got burned. Your hurting everywhere, but you're cold because you're ALMSOT dead.'

_How can you...? Oh, right: you're ME._

'Let's give the woman a medal.'

_WHOA! It feels like I'm falling._

'Oh, god... THIS IS FREAKING SCARY! AUDRI!'

_So sleepy... I keep falling...ohhh..._

A bright light lit up her world, and she was no longer falling. Instead, she was floating. And then she felt like she was falling into a deep, deep sleep that she wanted to stay in.

She wasn't aware of thoughts screaming at her from the back of her head and from the bottom of her heart to remember the man she loved was grieving and she needed to tell him she loved him.

But she could't.

Death had come, and she had lost herself in its embrace.

* * *

**End of Part Two**

* * *

**A/N: Does it say THE END?**

**no.**

**so guess what.**

**YOU HAVE MORE TO READ.**

**Please review. what do you think will happen? O.o**


	16. (Part III) Chapter 16

**A/N: HEY HEY HEY!**

**see that down there? yeah, PART 3? you see a THE MERRY END in sight? nope, neither do i! XD hahahahahahahahahaha ****Read, review, enjoy, good people! thanks so much for everything!**** don't know exactly how the actual storyline goes (comic wise) so i apologize if this seems a little off to you.**

**enjoy!**

* * *

**Part Three**

* * *

Black Mask was pacing back and forth in front of his desk, ignoring the throbbing in his feet. His legs were bandaged and he had been told countless times to sit down and stay seated for a good few weeks, but he didn't have weeks to watch the grass to grow. The television that had recently been installed on his wall had a picture of the Red Hood's little spy, proclaiming that she was missing, but was presumed dead. "Mr. Wayne is tirelessly searching for the young woman," the reporter was saying. "He has requested that if you find her dead or alive, you call the police or have her delivered to a hospital as soon as you find her. Apparently, Miss Baron was like family to the billionaire and him and his adopted son, Richard Grayson, who is the older adoptive brother of the missing woman's boyfriend, Jason Todd, who has come from his travels around the world. Mr. Wayne is offering a two-hundred thousand dollar reward for her, dead or alive."

To the rest of the city, it was truth and it was tragic, but not many cared for a dead girl. Bruce and Dick had hurriedly come up with this tale so people would not become suspicious.

The program ended and the TV went silent.

Black Mask was concerned for his own life. The Red Hood had a temper, and a foul one at that. On the news, they had showed a photo of the distraught Jason Todd, who'd looked devastated. Black Mask had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that this Jason Todd fellow was really the Red Hood. And a billionaire's son? This couldn't get any worse.

So, she wasn't a spy. Girlfriend, then. _Didn't see that one coming._

He didn't want to admit it, but he was freaked out. When someone died, and they were important to someone, that someone usually had a lot of anger and frustration to take out on people. The Red Hood was a killer already: he could only shudder at the thought of him taking his rage out on people to vent. To deal. Black Mask had never lost anything before. He didn't know the feeling. But he certainly didn't want to be killed over one dead woman.

* * *

Talia Ghul walked quickly through the streets of Gotham. She had her orders. She knew what she had to do. The vile of the green liquid from her father's Lazarus Pit bounced in her pocket. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit with a gun on her left hip and the vile on her right. She ignored the stares she got from everyone as she moved with purpose. Normally, she would have had her target brought to her, if she were to kill or torture someone, but this night, she had to go and find it. And it wasn't really a target: her goal was a girl, and this was a personal mission. Ra's Al Ghul had given it to her himself, with specific orders.

The smell of decay hit her like a wall of bricks when she passed by an abandoned alley. Pity washed over her as she hurried in and peered around an icky, rust-covered dumpster to find the crumpled form of a dead girl.

_Give her the elixir._

_Bring her back to life._

_Get her to a hospital long enough for her and her beloved to speak._

_Let her die._

Her father had felt guilt over Jason Todd's death, and had somehow managed to feel guilty for the loss of the girl he loved. It had been no secret to those who had brought him back from the dead that his love for her was greater than the need for him to deal out justice to those who deserved it, and those who didn't. Talia had agreed to his resurrection because of her love for the man who had raised the second Boy Wonder. And she felt the same way for him when it concerned this girl.

She knelt, ignoring the putrid odor that normally would have made her vomit there on the spot. She gently took a bunch of the girl's hair in her hands and carefully pulled at it so she could see Audri's face. She gasped, seeing the burns. She repositioned her so she could get a better look. Blotches of charred skin dotted the girl's face, arms, and legs. One of her wrists looked twisted. She wanted to end the madman's life at that moment, but she knew Bruce would hate it. So she merely examined the girl's burnt body a bit longer before opening her mouth and dumping the liquid down her throat, forcing the dead woman to swallow it.

_Please work._ Talia had observed Audri Baron before she had died. She had observed her both before and after Jason's resurrection, mainly because she got tiresome of duties that concerned her father and she had always been fascinated by Audri, even though they had never met in person. Audri had heard from Bruce, Richard, and Jason about Talia's feelings about, well, everything that involved Batman. And Talia had heard about Audri through her father and his men.

A few seconds of complete silence, Audri's eyes flew open, and she began coughing, fresh air entering her lungs. Her head snapped up, and she began shivering, pulling her legs up to her chest, wincing as she did so. She hadn't reacted like Jason had. She looked the same as she had been a few weeks ago: somewhat healthy, alive, and unaware that her best friend was still kicking, as people these days put it.

The girl's eyes darter to and fro, finally locking on the older woman. She didn't look much older, but she certainly was.

"T-Talia?" Audri asked, clutching her stomach suddenly, her voice raspy. Talia figured she must be in pain because the resurrection had been weak, but she was now able to feel pain again.

"Yes, it is I," she said softly, wrapping an arm securely around the smaller woman's waist and standing up, supporting her easily. _She is literally feather-light._

"T-Talia?" Audri tried again as they began walking. Talia knew what she wanted to know, and she knew that her lungs had to be damaged after crawling through a hole in order to get out before she died in that hell hole. Yes, Talia had snuck onto the scene of the crime and had inspected things an hour before, quickly coming to the conclusion that she had escaped and the bones in the morgue that Jason had inspected had not been hers. How had she known? Her father had told her: her father told her everything.

"I'm helping you because of pity," she supplied, knowing where the nearest hospital was, sensing that the girl would only last a few hours at the least. She hoped she lasted longer than that. "We are going to a hospital. You will die again, soon, but you will see your beloved before death takes you again."

"My _what?_" Audri croaked. "Okay, I admit it: I...love the guy, but..."

"Stop talking," Talia said as emotionless-ly as she could. Her father had told her to have no feelings towards the situation, but she planned on bringing the girl back to life as soon as she slipped away. She had hacked a security camera an hour and a half before from the night Jason had revealed himself to her and had seen the love shining in her eyes.

He was going to have her, no matter what.

"We're almost there," Talia whispered, turning another corner as she shoved the glass doors open. The media would find out about Miss Baron's 'survival' on her own.

**A/N: so did ya see that one coming? NO NO AND NO XD ya didn't!**

**Please review :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: YAY TALIA ahahaha.**

**Okay, dont tell me, I RUSHED. but... ****Dont yell at me when *that part* happens! just read it! :) I have more planned, dont worry, the end is near...but not close enough for me to start thinking of an ending XD**

****Switched PoV's.****

**Thanks again for reading, you all rock!**

Jason got the phone call from Talia before Audri's "survival" was on television. He was out on the roof of his warehouse, and had just blown up a big truck full of Black Mask's weapons. Nothing could make you feel better than explosions could.

Aggravated and depressed, he pulled out his tiny cell phone and put in his ear and went back to cleaning his gun, a permanent frown on his face.

"Yeah?" he snapped, ready to hand up.

"Jason? This is Talia."

He snarled into the phone, in no mood for her or her father or anything that had to do with her family. He was glad they'd brought him back and all, but he wasn't going to thank them, if that was what Talia was calling for. "What do you want?"

"Your beloved is at the hospital. I suggest you come soon, she doesn't have long."

He didn't even wait to absorb the information. He snapped the phone shut, and started running across town, knowing exactly where she was. But how had Talia found her, and so quickly? And how had he known that Audri was alive.

And why had she called her his _beloved_?

He didn't stop to ponder, because this was his only chance. His only chance to tell her that he loved her.

Maybe she wouldn't try to shoot him when he told her that.

* * *

Meanwhile, Bruce and Dick were in the Batcave, watching the news with skepticism written on their faces as the female reporter from earlier came on.

"Just in: the missing girl, Audri Elizabeth Baron, was found by a local woman, whose identity will not be released to the press. Reports say that her survival is a miracle, but she will not last long. If any of her family is watching this, I suggest you go down and see her. The hero who saved her has told us that no pay is necessary for this great deed. The girl will not make a statement before her death and requested that all press members leave her be. To honor this dying wish..."

Dick exchanged a look with Bruce. "Ra's Al Ghul?" he asked.

"No, Talia," Bruce grumbled, frowning with disapproval. The dead should stay dead. He knew that she'd had to have died at some point, and Talia had brought her back to life. She hadn't had time to dunk her in the fountain of youth...so she must have brought some with her.

And it suddenly hit him why she would show up with this most random act of kindness: so Jason could see her alive, one last time.

Dick made a move towards the door, but a shake of the head from his old mentor told him to sit back down. Alfred was standing a ways away, watching as well. The butler had always known about Jason and Audri's hidden feelings. He sometimes knew more than Bruce did when it came to certain subjects. This was one of those things: it had been obvious in the beginning, if only to him, but he knew Talia was doing this also for Bruce, not just for love's sake.

He shook his head as the two men in front of him resumed their silence. At least they weren't going to see her. That was most likely the last thing she wanted before she died.

* * *

When Jason got into he hospital, helmet off and unmasked, he almost cried when he heard familiar screams throughout the hospital.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME! DO YOU HEAR! I UNPLUGGED MYSELF FOR A BLOODY GOOD REASON, YOU KNOW!"

He easily found her room and stuck his head in. Talia was next to her, amusement written all over his face. He nearly crumpled when he saw the burns on her arms, legs, neck, and face. Her hair was swept up in a portal. Her wrist was in a cast. And she looked absolutely _pissed_.

A few nurses were at the foot of her bed, looking unsure. A doctor stepped forward, but the snarl that escaped her lips sent him a step back.

"DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?" she shouted angrily, the machine monitoring her heart beeping erratically. For a dying girl she knew how to use her energy, he thought. He wanted to see what happened next, and wanted to the doctors out of the room. Which would happen very soon, he knew with the saddest smirk Talia had ever seen when she caught him staring at the girl on the bed, on top of the sheets. the IV and other things strewn out across the floor. _Refusing medical treatment? I would, too, considering all the needles on the floor._

"You must try to get better," he began, but she would hear none of what he had to say about her condition.

"IF I AM GOING TO _DIE_, I AM GOING TO DIE _COMFORTABLE._ IF I AM GOING TO _HELL,_ THEN I AM GOING TO HELL. _COMFORTABLE."_

With that, the nurses and doctor scurried past Jason. By now, he couldn't contain his laughter. Audri whipped her head around and let out a small, tiny cry. He covered the distance between them quickly letting the door slam behind him, and without hesitation, he took her face in his hands as gently as he could and pressed his lips to hers.

* * *

Audri was dumbfounded at first. There were butterflies, in her stomach. Out of the corner of her eye she was aware of the smug look on Talia's face as he pulled away, smirking sadly

"You died," he said, sitting next to her, making her scoot over. She gladly did. She didn't have much time left. "And it was my fault."

"Jason," Audri said, suddenly seeming weaker than before, resting her head on her shoulder while glaring. "It is not your fault that I died. It never was, isn't, and never will be."

"I'm glad I reunited you two," Talia said. Audri could feel a blush climbing her cheeks.

She'd just had her first kiss.

With her best friend. But it had felt right...so right.

And she'd almost forgotten that Talia had seen the whole thing.

Embarrassing last hour on Earth, right?.

Jason wrapped an arm carefully around her waist. She tensed, but then relaxed after a few seconds, sinking into his side. "Thanks, Talia," she whispered. Talia nodded, got up, and left the room.

It was going to be the last time she was going to see her. Now alone, she looked up at Jason. "Did she call me your beloved?" she asked him. He nodded.

"I thought that term meant we were married. Didn't know we were."

"Me, neither."

They both laughed. Her lips were still tingling from the kiss. It had been the happiest thing she'd ever felt, and had wondered if the feeling that had sunk into her bones, the warm, calm, healing feeling was joy. Or, the closest thing that there was to joy. Whichever it was, it had made her heart soar. Jason held her close, and she noticed that his eyes were full of tears. Her expression turned soft as she sat up a little and ran her fingers slowly through his hair. "You're alright," she whispered, seeing the sorrow in his eyes. _That lying madman. Jason never forgot me. And I will never forget him._

He, without warning, buried his face in the crook her of her neck and shoulder, and her heart began breaking when she felt moisture seeping through the shoulder of her gown.

_My Jason is crying. He never cries._

She just ran her fingers slowly through his hair as he wept silently, trying to sooth him, trying to make it easier. She knew she was only making it harder, but this new feeling inside of her made her want to stay on Earth longer than she knew she could. Her heartbeat began slowing, which made him press his face harder into the undamaged patch of pale, smooth skin he'd found.

"Jason." It was no longer a strong voice. It was merely a soft, pretty thing you'd hear when the wind was blowing on a warm day when in the country. He lifted his head, and her heart shattered to see his eyes red. He wiped them hurriedly. "Jason...it's okay, to cry. Your secret, it's safe with me." She locked eyes with him. He was going to be the last thing she ever saw, and that was what she had wanted. To die in the arms of someone who cared...and that reminded of her of why Talia had raised her from the dead, out of death's heavy, dark embrace.

He positioned her carefully so her back was leaning back in his chest, relaxed. She was just so small to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, his coat proving a good blanket as well, their feet side by side. He was stroking her hair, his mouth next to her ear. She smiled sadly, feeling a tear fall down her cheek and onto his arm.

"Jason, I have something to tell you."

"I do, too," he said. "But you go first."

"No, you can."

He sighed nervously. "Okay," he mumbled. "Well, Audri...the thing is..."

She waited patiently. This was going to be important, she knew.

"Promise me you won't come back to shoot me when I say this," he said. She nodded slightly, her eyes facing the wall in front of her. She turned a little so her cheek rested on his chest, his chin on her head. This was, she was fully engulfed by his warmth. Peace settled in her bones.

"I... I love you," he managed, his voice barely above a whisper.

Her heart skipped a beat. He heard that, too, thanks to the monitor. Tears gathered in her eyes as more spilled out. He held her tighter, wondering if he had done something wrong.

"Jason, Jason," she gasped as her heartbeat got a little slower, "I..." she coughed a little, wheezed some. All he could do was stroke her hair and hold her as she soaked his shirt through with tears. He waited.

"I love you."

The words made him still for only a moment before his lips found hers again, but this time, they moved together. Her heartbeat slowed even more, and her eyelids began to droop, heavy with death. He pulled away, tucking her under his chin again, rocking her gently. Rocking her like the child she still was, from all the times he had put her to sleep when she had had that nightmare, over and over again...

"I love you more," he smirked.

"No, you don't." she smiled, feeling death coming again, and this was her last chance.

"Jason..."

"Yes?" he said, holding her impossibly tighter, rocking her still. She felt as if this blanket was being pulled over, and she was fighting a slumber she knew would overcome her if she didn't act fast.

"After all that you've done... and all that you are... I love you with all my heart."

The machine, along with her heart, went dead.

* * *

Jason let out a sob, letting tears fall free. His wails reached Talia's ears, and she knew she had to go in now.

Screw her father's orders: Jason needed he back in his life _now_, or he would surely die within a day's time. One could only take so much sorrow, she knew, as she walked toward him. A pang of pity could be felt in her chest as she saw the limp body of Audri in his arms, the infamous, murdering Red Hood crying his heart out for this girl. She's managed to hear their shared words through the wall. She couldn't imagine losing Bruce that way. No, she would not be able to survive it.

"Jason," she said as softly as she could, almost taking a step back when she saw the pure heartbreak in his eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked in a broken voice, not letting go of the dead woman. On her face was a peaceful look about her. She'd done a good deed, bringing her back to life so she had the chance to say those three magic words to him, but now another one had to be done.

If Jason couldn't live without her, than she would bring her back.

_No turning back._

"I can...bring her back for you," she said hesitantly. "If...you want that."

Jason seemed to think about this. Usually, he would have leapt to save her without one ounce of regret. But now...

"Yes," he said after a long silence, slowly and reluctantly getting off the bed, wiping his tears away, his eyes locked on the person he'd loved all along.

"Then come with me," Talia said, whipping out her communicator. "I'll have a chopper here so we can take her to my home.

**A/N: ****REVIEW AND LEMME KNOW WHATCHA THOUGHT! plze.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Thanks for reading!**************REVIEWERS AND READERS AND PEOPLE WHO CARE: we're getting close. To .The End. (an MCR song) ;) sorry my brain is messy today. I have only 20 minutes of musical stuff for homework so, im in a relatively good mood!**

**This is a bit wordy. And did I mention VIOLENCE VIOLENCE VIOLENCE? nope, now you know.**

**Enjoy!**

Jason had left Audri in the care of Talia, had watched her carefully carry the woman he hoped to see alive again onto the chopper with the help of her father's henchmen. He wanted to go with her, see her eyes pop open. He hoped she wouldn't wake up crazed and changed after being dumped in that green pool of magic water: the outcome was altogether unpredictable, which didn't help the fact that her heart, mind, and soul, according to a very supportive and assuring Talia (she never showed emotion like that, because her father disapproved) were all broken, shattered. They had been whole once, something that would return her as she was before...before she had gone to the school, he knew. She'd been ready to take her own life to spare herself. Her heart had been mangled and had been put back together in this unsteady lump of awfulness when Jason had died. Time had only made her unstable. Her heart had been fixed when she had learned of his death and his life, but her soul had been tortured with all that knowledge and all those experiences she carried around with her.

Jason had something else to attend to. Two things, actually. He thanked Talia again and hoped Audri would wake up alright.

The first thing he did was he went to his hideout.

His men jumped up when he stormed into the room, ignoring them "Boss? Whaddy'a need?" he heard a henchmen ask from behind. He kept walking, not looking anywhere but ahead. He went down a long hall, and turned into a room filled with guns, knives, grenades, and more importantly: the bazooka. An evil smile met his lips. He needed to blow something up. And he knew just the place. He grabbed it and turned, also grabbing another item he had used only a year ago, planning to use it once more, and if he had to, he would use it again and again, if it meant he would be happy, with Audri being happy, ignoring the stares from his men, leaving without a word. He quickly climbed a fire escape and began running across rooftops, ignoring the occasional gasp from below as someone spotted him. He wasn't worried: he had a plan, things to do, before he could see his Audri again, broken or not. He knew the burns wouldn't heal all the way: they were too severe, even for the Lazarus Pit.

She would always have the scars on her underarm, she would always have scars, faint outlines, of the wounds the Joker had given her. But she would be alive.

He found his way on top of a building, right across from Black Mask's building. He knelt, positioning the bazooka on his shoulder.

"Fire away," he muttered under his breath, a cruel edge to his voice. He pulled the trigger and watched with dark amusement as the rocket slammed into one of the lower floors of the building. Screams echoed all around him as it began to crumble. The building was on fire, and he knew he'd killed many already. The debris would kill or hurt more. He didn't care, though. He didn't care at all.

But he couldn't stay here and watch, like he would have.

No, he had another thing that needed attending to.

He left the weapon on the roof, jumping off it onto another, and another, running, not tired at all...hope fueled his movements. Hope of seeing that crybaby alive again. Hope of holding her in his arms again, with her heart beating. To see her scarred face that held more beauty than he'd seen in anyone else.

Oh, he couldn't _wait_ to see her.

He heard the cackle of laughter before he saw the madman walk through an alley, almost skipping. What got him so happy? No matter. He wouldn't be smiling with maniacal glee for long...

Jason leapt upon the man, knocking him to the ground. Rage filled his soul then, and he turned into a monster. A monster that could be compared to the one he was beating to a bloody pulp.

"IF IT ISN'T BIRD BOY NUMBER TWO!" the Joker shrieked with pained laughter, because the Red Hood's boot was shoved into the clown's windpipe. He was going to make him pay. For her mangled face. No, not just her face: the scars that would be forever present on her _body_. For her pain. And for _his_ pain. He didn't blame him for making him this way: the Joker had helped his dark streak come out when he had been resurrected.

Her words rang softly in his head like a soothing lullaby as he took out the weapon he had brought with him. It was a special thing, one he hated and one he knew he couldn't throw away because it had been a part of his demise.

_The crowbar._

He raised his hand and began bringing to down, over and over, taking out all his anger, sorrow, and pain on the man on the ground, how was howling in pain as he became a bloody mess. He didn't know how long he had beaten him, or how he had managed to shut everything off and let out everything. The Joker was shrieking now, with both laughter that made him sick and pain. He knew he was breaking bones now. He heard a thick _crack_ and now the Joker was wheezing.

While he wouldn't kill this worthless, cackling monster on the ground, he would make it _suffer_. Like the Joker had made _everyone_ suffer.

When Jason finally stepped away, he dropped the crowbar, no regret could be felt in his bones. Not a trace of guilt was in his soul. Instead, he smiled evilly, and gave the bleeding man one last kick to the chest before turning to walk away.

"You...know, _Birdy_..." the Joker wheezed, holding his left arm. Jason turned his head in his direction. "I... I really didn't take you for a..." he coughed up a great deal of blood before finishing his sentence: "a _romantic._"

"It's your fault she's dead again," Jason said, beginning to walk away.

"Again?" Laughter met pain, and then there was more of the sickening sound.

"Yes," he said lowly. "Kill her again, and I _will_ end you."

"Oooooooh, would you now?" more coughing, followed by weak giggles, followed by even more coughing.

Jason slowly turned towards him again fully, picking up the crowbar. His eyes narrowed. And then he slowly made his way toward the clown. There was so much blood on the ground... it was almost enough to be equal to the amount of blood on _her_ face from the video this freak had sent Bruce. _Almost_.

_Until there's an equal amount of suffering dealt out here,_ Jason thought bitterly, raising his hand again to strike, _I'm not going anywhere._

* * *

Talia knew what she had to do. When she landed the helicopter herself, she slung the surprisingly light body over her shoulder, it had not begun to smell yet of decay, and she made her way into her home. Ra's was waiting for her, but she walked right past him, down a long, winding staircase.

She was going to bring her back before Jason arrived, no matter what anyone told her. It had been Jason's decision: she had his consent. Now, as she made her way through a tunnel cut crudely out of stone and found herself at the base of the Lazarus Pit. The water fell from far above her. Men in robes surrounded the pool, as they always did. Talia sat, on the rock, and gazed at the mangled face of the girl the Red Hood had fallen in love with.

Talia had seen the anguish in both their eyes. Before Jason had come, Audri had told her about her school and her home, the home she'd had before Jason. She told her of the abuse she'd suffered from at home, and the neglect. At school, Talia had learned of the harsh punishments, the bruises and red marks she had obtained there. She had even been brave enough to show her a long scar that an old hag who Talia desperately wanted to kill at the moment had ripped into the skin of her upper back, near her left shoulder blade. The girl had gone through too much. Death must have come as a blessing, aside from not being with her beloved.

Talia imagined them together, married, forever and ever. It was a happy image in her mind, but in order for those smiles she saw in her head, she was going to bring Audri back to life. She stood, carefully holding the limp girl in her arms. The deadness of her wanted to make her simply throw her in, but she knew better.

Audri had been broken beyond repaired, fixed, and been broken again, all throughout her life. Talia didn't know what was going to surface. A monster? A killer? A maniac? Shyness? Voiceless? Happy? She had no idea.

A small part of Talia wondered what Bruce would think of this. He wouldn't approve; did he even know of what she was about to do? Did Richard, or his butler? Her mind drifted to the dead girl's family. She wanted to kill the cruel, heartless woman. She wanted to torture and _then_ kill her now-husband, for all the pain they had caused their daughter. They didn't deserve the efforts she'd made to succeed in the abusive school she'd attended. They didn't deserve her. Would they even care if she was dead? In the chopper, on the radio, it was official that Audri Elizabeth Baron had died. No public funeral would be held: she would be buried near Wayne Manor, or Bruce had said. She doubted that he didn't know what she was about to do. After all, this was the Batman.

Maybe he did know, and maybe he was giving his son a chance at happiness. Maybe he would see past the murderer darkness had twisted Jason into and accept him for what he was, who he was, like Audri had, like Talia had, like the city had...without knowing it.

Talia sighed, stroking the girl's hair. The knife wounds on her face, along with the burns that had transformed her body into something visibly broken, made Talia swell with rage. Her parents ought to die. The Joker ought to die. Everyone who had ever caused her pain and had not tried to fix her ought to die. Everyone did.

Audri had shown her the scars on her underarm, how Jason and she had come to be friends, why he had always known why she was so afraid of falling forever and ever. Talia had been somewhat mystified at the dream the younger woman had described in detail, and it all had become clear once it had been explained to her in honest words that made her want to be there for the girl.

Audri had also told her about the voice of herself inside of her head before she had died. Talia didn't think she was crazy, only lonely.

Somehow, she knew that if Audri survived this, the voice would not go away. It would come back. As crazy as it sounded, it made _sense_ to her, when it made none to Audri.

She did not know her all that well, and hadn't known her personally for more than a day, but she cared. Deeply.

Now the girl was rotting away, and she knew what she had to do. Jason would have to see her when she had risen from the grave, then. She stood, walking up to a small cliff that jutted out harshly into the pool of green, magical liquid that would either twist her or break her...or something else entirely.

Before she let the body splash to the water, she briefly wondered _w__h_y she cared.

And she didn't care why she cared. She was human, was she not? She should feel, should she not? She should wonder, should she not?

She no longer cared that her father frowned upon this now. Maybe in time he would come to tolerate what she was about to do, but until then, she wasn't going to regret this, or want to take it back.

This was for Jason.

She let the body fall, face first, into the water, with an ungraceful plop. There was nothing for a moment, Talia feared something had gone wrong, and then the water started to bubble. She leaned down, trying to get a better look, but the pool obscured her view. Maybe the water was only animating the corpse, making it seem dead.

Jason would have been disappointed if this were so.

So she waited, and waited, but then the water calm. Panic coursed through her, and still nothing came.

So she kept waiting.

* * *

Audri shot up from the depths, gasping for air, coughing and sputtering curses, which made Talia's heart swell with joy. As Audri staggered out of the pool, looking very angry, sad, glad, and confused beyond imagining, Talia ran down to her side and caught her just as her knees gave out beneath her.

Tears began slipping own Audri's cheeks as she sobbed into the Talia's jump suit, unable to speak.

_I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive!_ She couldn't believe it! She remembered dying. She remembered her last words to him. She remembered him crying. But she couldn't bring herself to do anything else but cry.

_'Of course you're freaking ALIVE, Sherlock.'_

Audri almost sputtered. So was she crazy?

Talia grinned at her, holding her, comforting. "No," she answered the unspoken question.

Audri pulled away, frantic. "Where's Jason?" she said, hysteria rising in her raspy voice. "Where's my Jason?"

"Right here." she felt herself being picked up bridal style and let out a sob of joy when she met those damned green eyes of his.

_'They're still smirking at you.'_

_Oh, shut up._

"Jason!" she squealed as he sat down. She smelled blood on him, but didn't ask whose it was. She took his face in her hands and wasted no time in making his lips meet hers. This kiss was deeper than the last. His fingers roamed about through her hair, and hers through his, and then she began to sob, her body shaking violently. He began stroking her hair, kissing her all the while as he rocked her back and forth.

In death, it had not been welcoming.

She had been falling.

_My worst nightmare, an eternity._

And then Jason was here.

"Jason," she managed, sobbing, barely able to breathe, wondering why she couldn't move her body any longer.

_'Well, you WERE dead, you idiot.'_

"What is it?" he asked, still rocking her.

"I was falling."

He stilled for only a moment as more tears soaked through his bloody jacket, but he resumed what he had done before.

"I love you more than anything," she gasped, weak. "I love you with all my heart, after all that you've done and all that you are. I love you, I love you, I love you!"

"I love you, too," he whispered. "But I think I love you more."

This only made her shake harder. "No, you don't," she gasped again. She felt as if she was drowning herself with emotions and tears. "it's equal."

He nodded.

Talia watched, along with her father. The daughter of the warlord's heart soared at the sight of the two holding each other. What a relief it had been to see her, although shaken, unchanged from rising from death. It was one of the happiest things she'd ever saw in her entire life.

Jason looked into those sad, sad eyes that belonged to his Audri. Her burns were gone, only faint, faint scars were left. She was no longer mangled: her beauty was still there. He had feared, on his way here after being _so close_ to ending the Joker's life, that her beauty would fade. That _she_ would fade when she came back.

But there was nothing broken about her now. Relief, love, and thankfulness flooded through her body, warming her down to her bones and her fingertips, making her feel alive while she couldn't very well move. Death had made her stiff.

He kissed her again, and this kiss would be greater than any other that they would share.

_My Jason._ Audri smiled, liking the sound of that.

_Mine._

* * *

**End of Part Three**

* * *

**A/N: Keep reading! Thanks for everything, it means the world to meh!**

**review! :D**


	19. Epilogue

**A/N: (cue the happy/sad/credits music!) You all deserve one more chapter.**

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

**One Year Later...**

"You may now kiss the bride," the preacher said, smiling. A small bit of applause reached the couple's ears. It was just enough for Audri to hate it. She didn't like being up on a stand, but with Jason leaning towards her like he was with that smirk on his face...it wasn't so bad.

"Gee," Jason said, his eyes leaving Audri's for only a moment, "I didn't know I needed permission to kiss my wife." With that, he took her face in his hands and crushed his lips to hers, and they could hear a few cheers. Audri's cheeks reddened as she pulled away, still in his embrace, beaming.

It had been a very small wedding, a very peaceful and quiet one. Her mother had even come, in the back, disdain written all over her face, but she had managed to keep her mouth shut throughout the entire ceremony. Then, as soon as it was over, she had left. In all, her mother, Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Ra's Al Ghul (to everyone's dismay but Audri's), and Talia attended the tiny wedding.

But that was okay.

"Let's go cut the cake, _sweetheart_," Jason said, dragging her, red in the face, towards the table full of food. In the back of her mind, she heard herself, _And they lived happily ever after._

"Shut up," she mouthed the words silently, planning on giving Jason a face full of chocolate cake. Best plan ever.

_You wish._

"Alright, _honey,_" Audri returned, surprised laughter escaping her lips as she felt her face being smeared by blue frosting and dark chocolate cake.

_I couldn't be happier._

* * *

**Six Months Later...**

Audri sat on the bed in their four-story house, far away from Gotham, in the country, holding her belly with tender care. Her hands trembled with joy and excitement.

"Jason!" she shouted. He came running, looking slightly worried. Seeing how she glowed, he asked, "what is it, Audri?"

She locked eyes with those brilliant green ones of his. _God, Audri, they're still smirking at you._

_Shut up._

"I'm pregnant."

* * *

**Seven Years Later...**

Jason stared in mortification as his wife watched with approval as their daughter, Maggie Helena Todd, with her bright eyes, her hair dyed black like her father's, but with bright red and blue streaks she had done herself (he had no idea why she had felt the need to add red and blue), throw a grenade into the patch of dirt about forty feet away from her. She had her mother's slim build, but had her father's healthy skin. She was faster than either of them, and she knew who her parents were, had been, and were at the time. She knew they'd both died. But they were happy now.

Audri wasn't depressed anymore: their daughter had seen to that. And Jason was _glad_. "I won't be able to save you every time," he'd told her in the hospital as she'd cradled her baby girl in her arms for the first time, "I might be doing something important, like, making fun of you." Jason seemed to be thinking of something else, though, because he was smirking. A lot.

"I did it!" the six-year-old squealed in delight. "Mommy, I did it!"

Jason groaned. _Too young for guns, my wife said. Never too old for grenades, my wife said._ He rolled his eyes. "We should call Aunt Talia," Audri suggested. She had named Talia Ghul Maggie's godmother, not intrusting her to anyone else, not even Bruce or Dick. No, she'd decided, Talia would be best. Besides, the woman had promised her that she would not train her in any way unless she wanted to be trained, if she were ever in her care.

Her mother had met Maggie, only once. And for that one time, she hadn't given her daughter a look of disgust. Her husband, not boyfriend anymore, had gotten help... but he hadn't apologized for the bruises.

Jason had punched him for that. More than once, before her mother threatened to call the cops and then he threatened to string her up somewhere, where no one would ever find her or miss her.

That got her to never come back.

Maggie was running up to Jason, a smile on her face. "Can we go see Talia _and_ Dicky?" she asked, using her uncle's childhood nickname. It still annoyed Dick to be called that, but he put up with her for the bright and happy child that was now her parents' worlds. Jason hadn't really given up his title as the Red Hood, no, sometimes he would drop in and kill a few people, then return home to the country, far away. Audri never went back, though. There were too many memories that hurt her, that reminded her of the barely there leftover scars from the burns she had received.

"Sure thing," he said, scooping her up. His wife was close behind, beaming. "Come on, crybaby," he called to her, seeing her eyes flash with annoyance.

"You asked for it!" she shouted, darting after him as he leapt into the house, his baby girl still in his arms. Maggie was laughing at her mother's childish actions.

They would never be happier than this.

* * *

**Ten Years Later...**

"Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend," Maggie said brightly as Jason and Audri examined the teenage boy sitting across from them at the dinner table. Talia was there, too. Talia tried to come for Audri's cooking as often as she could. Ra's, aft first, hadn't approved of his daughter being the one god-parent of a mere child, but he had come to accept it, with the help of a little rebelliousness from Talia. Audri was shaking her head. _Her first boyfriend, what are we going to do about him? Burn him alive? Bury him in the backyard?_

From time to time she still talked to herself, silently. Jason knew about it. Maggie hadn't at frist, but at age ten she'd discovered how her mother had decided that she was in love with the man now masking a glare at the dinner table.

The boy, Vincent, didn't seemed bothered by her parents. Maggie and him chatted happily, while her parents analyzed him while chewing on chicken, rice, vegetables, and pasta.

_Any hidden weapons?_

_'__Not that I can see.'_

_You sure about that?_

_'No, Sherlock, how about we go over there and pat him down?'_

_Maggie will kill you._

_'Correction, you pessimistic, lovey-dovey idiot: she'll kill US. US. As in the TWO. OF. US.'_

_Whatever._

_'I don't like him.'_

_I don't either._

_'We should get him out of the house.'_

_Yeah, sure, and then I'll have Maggie spray painting the house again like last time we tried to tell her that Jason WASN'T the Red Hood?_

_'Well, I'm sorry. I thought that was your idea!'_

_No, it was OURS. Didn't you JUST make that point?_

**. . .**

Dinner was good. When the blue-eyed, sandy-haired boy left, they all sat down on the couch together in the huge living room.

"Tell me how you met," Maggie said, leaning back in her love seat. Jason and Audri were at opposite ends of the couch, stretched out. Her mother kept poking her father with her sock-clad feet, which he seemed to have trouble ignoring him. She knew from experience that he would start tickling her feet and that would make her go _insane._ Once, when she had been young, her parents had shot each other with bee bee guns. It had been hilarious.

_"Ow!" Jason yelped, coming out from behind a tree, holding his arm._

_"Karma," Audri smirked, pointing her gun at his foot and pulling the trigger. He yelped again, threw his own weapon aside, and tackled his wife to the ground, and a string of curses, insults, taunts, and jeers came out of her mother's mouth._

_That would always be one of her fondest memories of her parents._

It was tradition, almost, for the Todd family and Talia to sit and tell their daughter their story. She'd heard the real, long, true version only once, last year.

"I had run away," Audri said, nudging her husband again with her foot, smirking when he rolled his eyes. "I was ready to die."

"But then I came in and saved the day," he said. Looking at her, smirking, he said, "Crybaby!"

"You too," she shot back, and he scowled.

"I had a good reason to cry," he defended.

"Yeah, well, I did, too!"

They laughed, and Maggie waited patiently. Her parents were perfect for each other.

"She came to live with me and Bruce," Maggie knew everything: she knew that Dick was Night Wing and Bruce was Batman and everything else. "I started training her, but she got lazy after I died."

Audri still looked sad some days, and there was a flash of pain in her eyes. "Yeah, because you were the only one who could kick my butt."

He smirked, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards him.

_As he had done in the hospital._

"Then I died," Audri said, "but I got to tell him I loved him."

"And then Talia brought you back," he said.

Talia smiled. "I remember how happy they were. It was worth it, defying my father's orders for them."

"Is the Joker free again?" Maggie asked. Her parents had never answered this question. Talia did, though.

"No," she replied calmly, leaning back next to her god-daughter. "His cell has been modified to the point where only Bruce can get in and out."

"Can I meet the new Robin sometime?" she asked.

Yes, Bruce had gotten another Robin. Much to Jason's annoyance, though. But he would never be replaceable or a replacement to Audri. Never.

"Maybe," Talia said, smiling, "You should try sparring with him. You should come and train with me sometime."

Maggie nodded eagerly. When she wasn't getting all A's in her classes or doing sports (mainly football after school since she did so well in everything else and after school lessons had bored her to death), she was either training with her parents or training with Talia, rarely seeing her grandfather, or her uncle Dick anymore. She had comet to inherit most of the same feelings Jason harbored for most of his family, but her mother had encouraged her not to kill anyone unless they tried to kill her first.

They were still trying to agree on that.

"Mom?" Maggie asked, leaning forward. "Is it okay if Vincent came and trained with me?"

Jason gave his sixteen-year-old a look of suspicion, which made Audri and Talia burst out laughing.

"No," he said. "Not at all. Does he know who I am?"

"No, Dad, he doesn't! I swear!"

Talia and Audri continued to laugh.

This was one of the happiest moments this family would share, and they treasured it.

* * *

_"All your twisted thoughts free flow_  
_To everlasting memories_  
_Show soul_  
_Kiss the stars with me_  
_And dread the wait for_  
_Stupid calls returning us to life_  
_We say to those who are in love_  
_It can't be true 'cause we're too young_  
_I know that's true because_  
_so long I was_  
_So in love with you_  
_So I thought_

_A year goes by_  
_And I can't talk about it_

_On my knees_  
_Dim lighted room_  
_Thoughts free flow try to consume_  
_Myself in this_  
_I'm not faithless_  
_Just paranoid of getting lost or that I might lose_  
_Ignorance is bliss cherish it_  
_Pretty neighborhoods_  
_You learn too much to hold_  
_Believe it not_  
_And fight the tears_  
_With pretty smiles and lies_  
_About the times_

_A year goes by_  
_And I can't talk about it_  
_The times weren't right_  
_And I couldn't talk about it_

_Chorus Romance says goodnight_  
_Close your eyes and I'll close mine_  
_Remember you, remember me_  
_Hurt the first, the last, between_  
_Chorus Romance says goodnight_  
_Close your eyes and I'll close mine_  
_Remember you, remember me_  
_Hurt the first, the last, between_

_And I'm praying that we will see_  
_Something there in between_  
_Then and there that exceeds all we can dream_  
_So we can talk about it_

_Chorus Romance says goodnight_  
_Close your eyes and I'll close mine_  
_Remember you, remember me_  
_Hurt the first, the last, between_  
_Chorus Romance says goodnight_  
_Close your eyes and I'll close mine_  
_Remember you, remember me_  
_Hurt the first, the last healing_

_And I'm praying that we will see_  
_Something there in between_  
_Then and there that exceeds all we can dream_

_And all these twisted thoughts I see_  
_Jesus, there in between_  
_And all these twisted thoughts I see_  
_Jesus, there in between."_

Maggie smiled, watched as her parents danced to the song. When you thought about the rhythm and the beat of it, it could be made for a dance.

It wasn't one she'd ever heard before, and she wondered why. It was haunting. The band was performing their song live, the lead singer having a look of bliss on her face. The band, if Maggie thought correctly through her sleepy haze as she slumped against the wall, wanting to leave, but not wanting her parents to let go of each other. They were too cute together. Jason got mad when she said that. Audri just blushed.

There, in each others arms, they looked perfect.

In Maggie's eyes, her parents _were_ perfect.

* * *

**The End**

* * *

**A/N: ****I just had to give you an epilogue! I love you all for reading this and reviewing!**

**The song was (I DONT OWN THE RIGHTS TO IT IN CASE ANYONE WAS WONDERING HAHA) "So I Thought" by my favorite band, Flyleaf. I had to have it in there because it's just a song with a deep meaning for me and I loved it.**

**You'll probably see more Flyleaf songs/song quotes. :) maybe. BE ON THE LOOK OUT GOOD PEOPLE.**

**NOTICE!**************** ****I WILL BE STARTING ANOTHER JASON TODD FIC SOON. unrelated to this one, OF COURSE :) ****Thanks so much.**

**Any questions, comments, suggestions? I'm open to almost anything!**

**Thanks again, you've all made this so much fun to write (and sadly finished).**

**_~ Peace ~_**


	20. Notice

**PLEASE READ:**

**Okay, for those of you who loved this, you can thank HeartsMockingjay for this...**

**THERE IS A POSIBILITY THAT THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL INVOLVING JASON'S AND AUDRI'S DAUGHTER, Maggie Helena Todd.**

**HeartsMockingjay: Your welcome XD**

**I'll try to have it up soon, I'm still thinking it through...**

**Yeah, MOST LIKELY sequel will be made in the next week or two, maybe later than that.**

**Thanks so much!**

**Opinions on the sequel? Anyone? :)**

**If you have anything to say, add, or ask about my story/stories you can just leave a comment!**

**Just leave one as soon as you read this please! :)**


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